Before the climate summit:

Minister warns urgently of “superstorms”

German Foreign Minister Baerbock warns of killer storms. The climate crisis is the greatest security challenge of our time.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/AFP/POOL/Ammar Awad, APA/NOAA )

From Monday, a flood of thousands and thousands of delegates from all over the world will be wrestling with the world's climate in Azerbaijan. Just in time for the climate summit, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock from the Green Party warns of "superstorms" (see video above).

"Killer storms, droughts, new floods of the century and heat records: the climate crisis is the greatest security challenge of our time," explained the Green politician in Berlin. The climate crisis is the greatest security challenge of our time. The crisis rages regardless of elections, as the floods in Spain and the recent hurricanes in the USA painfully demonstrated.

Turning away from coal, gas and oil
Moving away from coal, gas and oil, as decided at the 2023 climate conference, is worthwhile. "Every tenth of a degree of global warming prevented means fewer crises, less suffering and less displacement."

The storm disaster of the century in Valencia claimed hundreds of lives.

(Bild: AP )

Cynical venue
The success of this climate conference will depend on whether the international community finally commits to a very concrete end to coal, oil and gas," WWF climate spokesman Reinhard Uhrig also said in the "Krone". The required timetable: In the wealthy countries of the global North, the phase-out of coal must be completed by 2030, followed by an end to the burning of natural gas and the phase-out of oil by 2040.

The COP29 global climate summit is taking place in Azerbaijan, of all places, a country with a strong focus on fossil fuels.

(Bild: EPA)

However, the very location of COP29 suggests the opposite and cannot be surpassed in terms of cynicism. The Middle Asian state is fully focused on fossil fuel exploitation and summit president Mukhtar Babayev once worked for the state-owned gas company Socar. In addition, the EU, which is committed to green energy, is asking for gas supplies from the host country of the UN conference.

Massive financial support from the rich North for the poorer countries of our planet is nothing other than life insurance for the whole world.

WWF-Klimaexperte Reinhard Uhrig bleibt zu Hause

Bild: Jauschowetz Christian/Christian Jauschowetz

Virtual participation
But in Azerbaijan's capital, the next two weeks will be all about funding. In order to achieve the 1.5 degree target, UN experts are certain that additional funding of one trillion (!) US dollars per year will be needed to support poorer countries. Incidentally, Uhrig will not be jetting off to Baku for climate protection reasons. The activist is taking part in the conference in distant Azerbaijan virtually, but fully registered.

The latest bad news from Greece: mussel farming has died off due to record temperatures.