One After Another, Russia Blocks Candidates to Host Next Climate Summit

If countries cannot agree on a host for 2024, the summit will default to Germany under the rules of the U.N. climate body.

shrugs

I mean, that works. Germany's gonna have said infrastructure for having a summit, and it sounds like Russia can't block it from being held in Germany. It's probably annoying to Azerbaijan from a diplomatic standpoint, but I don't think that it actually hurts them much, unless they've already put money into setting up hosting.

A statement from the prime minister’s office in Armenia said that as a good-will measure to repair relations between the two warring countries, it would release two Azerbaijani soldiers and endorse its bid to host COP29 in exchange for 32 of its own soldiers held by Azerbaijan. Bulgaria prepared to drop its bid. Azerbaijani diplomats were congratulating one another.

I think in terms of a good-will gesture, it probably already worked. Armenia and Azerbaijan said that they were willing to work together. If Russia blocks the actual event, it's not like it erases that.

Maybe line up some other summit that Russia isn't in the loop on to happen in Azerbaijan.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine have hampered the ability of diplomats meeting in the United Arab Emirates for this year’s summit, known as COP28, to find a location for 2024.

The latest impasse came on Friday when Azerbaijan won the blessing of its neighbor and longtime foe, Armenia, to host the summit — only to be blocked by Russia hours later, according to European diplomats.

Observers called the inability of nations to select a host for next year a troubling sign for efforts to find global consensus on the far more serious issue of tackling climate change.

“Russia just wants to be a troublemaker on everything in the international setting,” said Jake Schmidt, the senior strategic director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.

Most Eastern European countries have strongly condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and have joined Western powers in imposing stiff sanctions in response to the invasion.

Sultan Al Jaber, the Emirati oil executive who is presiding over the summit and has been widely criticized by environmental activists, has indicated that he is not eager to take on the mantle again, according to one person familiar with his thinking.

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