A promise made in Dubai in 2023, when nearly 200 nations pledged to transition away from fossil fuels, met its hardest test at COP29 in Azerbaijan.
The European Union and other countries clashed with Saudi Arabia over whether the UN talks should include strong language on the energy transition. A Saudi official told delegates on Thursday that the 22-nation Arab Group would reject any UN climate deal that targeted fossil fuels.
The dispute unfolded in Baku, Azerbaijan, an authoritarian state dependent on oil and gas exports. Azerbaijan’s leader, Ilham Aliyev, opened the conference by calling fossil fuels a 'gift of God'.
Nearly 200 nations spent much of COP29 negotiating a finance pact, which was eventually approved in the early hours of Sunday. Yet a separate text intended to set out ways of putting the pledge to 'transition away' from fossil fuels into practice was not adopted when the conference closed.
As talks ended, vulnerable small island states and Latin American and Caribbean countries and negotiating blocs said the draft had been weakened to a point where they could not support it. The Azerbaijan presidency then chose not to adopt the text, leaving it for further discussion when negotiators meet next year in June.
The disagreement comes as fossil-fuel production continues to rise despite rapid renewable-energy growth since the Dubai agreement. Fossil fuel supply made up 86 percent of the world's total energy supply in 2025.
The International Energy Agency said fossil fuels accounted for 81 percent of the global energy mix in 2024: 30 percent oil, 28 percent coal and 23 percent gas. Preliminary research from scientists at the Global Carbon Project, released during COP29, found that fossil fuel CO2 emissions had risen this year to a new record high.
Renewables have expanded rapidly alongside that continued dependence. Global solar generation rose 28 percent in 2025 and reached 8.5 percent of total electricity generation. Coal accounts for 34 percent of power generation, while renewables now virtually match it at 34 percent of global electricity generation.
The EU is heading to COP31 arguing that climate pledges alone are no longer sufficient. Many oil-producing developing countries have sought to rely on national determination in resisting efforts by some developed-country parties to give priority to a transition away from fossil fuels.
Another point of friction is the use of climate-related carbon border measures, backed by the EU and the United Kingdom. Developing-country groups have said such measures could shift the burden of the transition onto developing-country parties.
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