Cop29 gave us a Putin-friendly deal – and a glimpse of the dark future of climate talks | Fiona Harvey

The Baku Cop29 talks were marked by division and self-interest, with rancorous meddling right until the end

• Fiona Harvey is an environment editor at the Guardian

When I first visited Azerbaijan this spring, one fixture of the Baku skyline was unmissable. The bright orange of flaring – the product of the oil and gas extraction that makes up 90% of Azerbaijan’s export revenues – lit up the night sky, not far from the Olympic stadium, where nearly 200 nations would gather in November for the Cop29 climate summit.

Flaring burns methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, and is a major source of carbon emissions. If all the world’s flared gas were captured instead, it could power sub-Saharan Africa. But that entails installing new equipment, so producers don’t bother.

Fiona Harvey is an environment editor at the Guardian