Walking miles and miles around the COP today and passing repeated slogans adorning the walls, seen at every COP for twenty years, I know I was not alone in occasionally thinking “What’s the point?!” …particularly knowing the times we are living through and the current political context.

ITUC’s delegation lead Bert shared his own concerns in our delegation meeting today -chaired by yours truly (!); the global south are more than a little worried by Trump (and, by the way, Biden is not here..), Saudi are pushing for climate finance to all be about offsetting emissions and this should all have been sorted long ago; there are those trying to push back even on last year’s agreement of “transitioning away” from fossil fuels. Many are worried.

But we must press on; trade unionism is about the struggle after all!!…so we set about forming our groups and coordinators for the various workstreams and everyone was advised on how to get into meetings to observe, where to sit and how to engage the negotiators. We are here representing 200 million workers worldwide from many sectors. As usual we are arguing for just transition with protection for workers’ rights, social protections for all and human rights at its core, as well as strong finance to enable all countries everywhere to ensure just transitions.

Grabbing a coffee on route (you’re never far from a Costa…), I was lucky enough to get a pass for the world climate leaders’ summit and “opening ceremony”.

First up was the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, son of former President Heydar Aliyev, “elected” and “re-elected” (sometimes questionably) over several random years. We were welcomed, in true Eurovision style, with tourist-board quality films of the regions, to this country where East, West, North and South meet (literally of course, this fortnight) and I had spotted this in the architecture of Baku and even the food at breakfast! There is a wonderful and exciting fusion of Russian slaws, fresh fruit, Turkish kebabs, domes, ornate balconies, Soviet block-style apartments, tacky Europop and beautiful Middle eastern melodies sung from the soul.

However, the guy clearly has a grudge. He has restored justice, he says, after occupation by Karabakh; he has claimed a victory after ethnic cleansing and is proud of his state policy of multiculturalism (having got most regions back for his republic). Not only this but he is proud of his green agenda- offshore and onshore wind, aqua power thanks to Saudi investment and an agreement with BP for solar power in Jabrayil, known as a “ghost town” since the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

Mr President went on to say that he would now speak about oil and gas, even though he knows this is unpopular at climate talks. In 1846 the first oil well in the world was dug in Baku. Back then, Azerbaijan accounted for more than half of global oil production and were called a “petrostate” by the West, but, he says, this is not fair today. It is only the fake media that now call them the number one oil producers and there has been, he feels, an orchestrated campaign of slander and disinformation by Western media representing countries (and this is where he is correct-) that wanted a share of the pie. (And this is where he is wrong-) Natural resources, he says, “are the gift of the world and I will yes repeat this again here, as I said to the media- natural resources are the gift of the world and we cannot be blamed for having them and bringing them to the market” because this would be “double standards and hypocrisy from state controlled media” (we’re ranting now) and “Western NGOs who were advocating a boycott of COP 29”!

Oh dear. And thank goodness the world has Antonio Guterres who asked us to listen again to the ticking clock giving us the final countdown to keep to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, with 2024 boasting the hottest day, the hottest month and soon the hottest year on record. “Time to deliver”, he urged, on emergency emission reductions (not through land grabbing or markets disrespecting communities), more adaptation goals to protect people (with an alert system for every person on earth and real finance), and to “break down the walls of climate finance” based on a model of “polluters must pay”. He said this is not charity but “an investment for a liveable future; the clock is ticking: I count on you”.

The lady mayor of Kuala Lumpur, spoke on biodiversity and her plan for “biodivercities”, urging leaders present to “please stop all wars” because there can be no realisation of sustainability goals while war rages. She said “it has to be planet, then people, and only then….profit” but the most moving statement was her quote from an Azeri poet:

“In your hour of adversity be not without hope for crystal rain falls from the black clouds”.

And after a brief intervention from Suni Williams at the international space station (literally beamed down to us in Baku after they’d observed the effects of extreme weather from up there), the crystal rain fell in the form of the Azeri cultural programme. We had a tenor singer that strongly rivalled Pavarotti, absolutely breathtakingly virtuosic tar players, stunningly beautiful violin and piano, a powerful mezzo soprano in a very big puffy dress and a ten year old boy singing a solo with astounding vocal range, unaccompanied (can you tell I’m a music teacher by trade?), to call in the cossack-style dancers who performed with Soviet-quality precision. It was all gripping and I felt perhaps Mr President had redeemed himself and that music may yet save us all…

Time to come back down to earth…..so I met up with Tony, UNISON colleague, and we took a trip to the UK government delegation office to try our luck (previous COPs we had been turned away as Rishi and co weren’t that bothered about the justness of any transition). And guess what? We arrived at the exact same time as Ed Miliband!! After finishing off a little choreography with his film crew, he came over for a chat and we all had a jolly photo:

Now whatever I and my union comrades think of Keir Starmer’s Labour and the hope (or lack of) that anyone has on so many pressing issues, I can honestly say that on climate change we have a tide change. For the last two COPs we have had NO contact with ANY negotiators or delegation from the government. The climate change lead for Sunak’s government flew into Dubai and then back home to prioritise the Rwanda vote! Here we have a man who has worked his socks off on climate change for years, often without fanfare, who actually believes in good policy.

Straight after this I bumped into our Brent West MP Barry Gardiner, another solid honest politician who has been sounding the alarm on climate and biodiversity for years and was running a side event this afternoon on putting finance into projects which facilitate indigenous people to control protection of the rainforests. David Lammy committed funding there and then.

This was followed by a meeting for UK union delegates and myself with Kerry McCarthy the new under-secretary of state for climate, who talked with us at length, listened, and made commitments for ongoing dialogue on just transition. We were able to discuss Ratcliffe on Soar (a relatively just transition) and Port Talbot steel (a bad one) amongst other examples. Kerry was at last year’s COP and promised things would change if they were elected and so far….

Let’s hope for more crystal rain amongst those black clouds…