Cities can make history in saving the world’s climate. Kyoto in Japan, for example, the birthplace of the climate protocol of the same name. Copenhagen as a scene of failure, Paris with the big breakthrough. Lima, Katowice, Glasgow – or now Dubai with its COP 28: all landmarks in international politics, venues for climate summits. And next year?
This question is currently affecting one of the five groups of states divide the United Nations. Because it would actually be the Eastern Europeans’ turn in 2024. The division still follows the world during the Cold War. Nobody could have imagined that the states of the former Warsaw Pact would get into such a fight.
The dispute has been going on for a year. First the Czech Republic flirted with hosting the event, then Bulgaria came forward. But the largest country in the group vetoed it: Russia. Under no circumstances should the next COP take place in an EU country – because of European sanctions. Instead, oil-rich Azerbaijan applied; Moscow would have liked that better. But Armenia protested against this because of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. It also offered an alternative: Yerevan. But Azerbaijan doesn’t want that. Most recently, the Republic of Moldova entered into discussions – without agreement.
There are still a few days left to resolve the dispute. More precisely: until Tuesday. Then COP 28 must decide where COP 29 should take place. It has long been clear where the conference after next will take place, namely in Brazil. But the next one is more open than ever before in the 28-year history of global climate summits. According to the German Foreign Ministry, we are “optimistic” about solving this question. And there is also a bit of hope.
Because if that doesn’t work, all eyes will be on Germany. The United Nations Climate Secretariat is located here in Bonn. If no venue is found, as per UN rules, the draw automatically falls on the country of the Climate Secretariat. Once, in 2001, an aborted climate conference in Bonn had to be continued. And when the island state of Fiji wanted to host a COP in 2017 but didn’t know where to put so many people, Bonn stepped in and built a tent city. The Rhine floodplains then needed a lawn treatment.
And that was before the climate summits became a global mass event. In 2017, 23,000 participants were registered in Bonn, and they were already pushing the city to its limits. In Dubai there are four times as many. On top of that, there are less than eleven months left for preparation. But they did it just as quickly in 2017, says Jan-Michael Uhlig, head of events at the Bonn World Conference Center. “Of course we are ready in Bonn,” he says. We have to see the number of participants.
But it doesn’t have to come to that. On Friday night, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan released a joint statement. There is a historic chance for peace, they wrote, and the first thing they are doing is exchanging prisoners. And as a “gesture of goodwill” Armenia wants to withdraw its candidacy for the climate summit – it now supports Azerbaijan. This increases his chances. If the other Eastern Europeans agree, the next summit city will be Baku. If not, Bonn.