COP29: The state of the climate in eight charts

The 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP29) began in Baku, Azerbaijan on November 11.

World leaders, climate experts, and campaigners will engage in discussions on climate crisis until November 22.

At the heart of the discussions in Baku is the climate finance goal, which seeks to establish a target for financial support directed towards developing countries — funding considered essential for helping these nations reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Preliminary assessment indicate that 2024 will almost certainly be the hottest year on record, beating the high set in 2023.

And for the first time, the globe this year reached more than 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming compared to the pre-industrial average, the European climate agency Copernicus said last week.

The European Union, alongside major historical emitters like the US and UK, has cut greenhouse gas emissions by about one-third since 1990.

Despite this, global CO2 emissions have steadily increased from 22.6 million metric tonnes (Mton) in 1990 to 39.02 Mton in 2023, according to UN data.

China's emissions have risen to 13.2 Mton in 2023, reflecting the country's growing contribution to global emissions.

Large countries like China, the US, and India are the biggest total CO2 emitters, but nations on the Arabian Peninsula lead in per-capita emissions.

European Union data shows that Qatar has the highest per-person emissions, followed by Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Many countries have longer-term, global targets of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

In 2023, the EU had reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 34 per cent from 1990 levels. However, it is still far from its goal of climate