The 2024 summit in Azerbaijan comes amid fresh reports showing that global warming levels are accelerating, bringing more intense climate-related disasters and an increased demand for funding to mitigate and protect communities from the effects of climate change.

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.

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.