The annual U.N. climate summit began on Monday with some prominent leaders planning to skip the event ahead of tough talks on finance and trade, after a year of weather disasters that have emboldened developing countries' demands for cash.

COP29 is the biggest influx of visitors in the city’s history, and the government has done everything possible to present a positive experience.

Activists rallied around a shared feeling of exclusion from the formal COP process, and concerns that the solutions that come out of it are harming their communities.

The annual U.N. climate summit began on Monday with countries preparing for tough talks on finance and trade, after a year of weather disasters that have emboldened developing countries in their demands for climate cash.

Pay up’ was the resounding call from hundreds of activists who staged a major rally at the UN climate summit on Saturday as negotiations on finance continued. Groups are calling on negotiators to deliver the $5 trillion needed annually by 2030 according to research by US think tank World Resources Institute - to help poor countries cope with the crisis.

T he future of nations that have banded together to fight climate change, which will endanger part of the human race, has already proven to be a failure. On paper, the US, part of