Good news for progress at Cop29 came not from Baku but from Rio de Janeiro early on the morning of day eight of the log jammed talks, writes Fiona Harvey, Guardian environment editor. The G20 communique contained key lines on the climate that confirmed the world would transition away from fossil fuels.
The leaders of the G20 group of the biggest developed and developing economies met in Brazil to talk geopolitics, and climate was high on the agenda – despite the reluctance of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and India. At Baku, the Saudis have tried hard to unpick the resolution to transition away from fossil fuels, made a year ago. They tried to sideline it into discussions of finance at the early agenda meetings.