Trump's reelection casts a shadow over the start of global climate negotiations
NPRTrump's reelection casts a shadow over the start of global climate negotiations toggle caption Sergei Grits/AP Global climate talks started today in Baku, Azerbaijan, a major oil and gas producing country that borders Russia and Iran on the Caspian Sea. Sponsor Message At the end of last year's conference in Dubai, negotiators struck a breakthrough agreement for countries to transition away from fossil fuels, the chief source of heat-trapping pollution. Sponsor Message There's also debate around a new "loss and damage" fund that was created last year to compensate vulnerable countries for harms they're already suffering from climate change. At last year's climate talks, participants agreed — for the first time — that the world needs to move away from fossil fuels like oil, gas, coal But this year the world is investing even more money in exploring for and producing fossil fuels, according to a report from S&P Global Commodity Insights. Last year countries also agreed to double annual energy efficiency improvements "from around 2% to over 4% every year until 2030."