With roughly half the citizens of the most powerful country in the world now wishing they could escape and the other half happy that their incoming criminal leader will try to stop the entry of those escaping from elsewhere, representatives of all the rest of the world are packing their bags for a winter trip to Azerbaijan. The windy city of Baku will host this year’s UN climate talks, COP 29, and it remains to be seen whether the windy city will support a load of hot air; headlines at the BBC today have already revealed the shady oil deals of the new COP hosts and anything agreed in the final text risks being ripped up by Trump a few weeks later.

My hope lies in the momentum behind the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty campaign and I hope to join meetings on this theme as well as following talks on just transition and other aspects. But the positive news for us UK TUC reps (Tony, my fellow UK rep from UNISON and myself-NEU) is that we now have actual contact with some UK negotiators!!! This was NOT the case under our last government.

So, we pack our cases, ponder which socket adaptor is needed this year, and set off in hope and just a little uncertainty….

To follow me at COP 29, follow this blog from Monday 11th!