Tens of thousands of people from around the world will gather next week for COP29, the UN’s annual climate summit, in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.

But since each year’s summit has produced its own set of promises, plans and documents to follow, the rationale behind these talks can be hard to follow.

Here’s what you need to know about why the COP, short for Conference of the Parties, matters:

Why do we have an annual COP?

Because climate change will affect every country regardless of whether they contributed to the problem, it requires global solutions that can address the diversity of needs across countries.

At the signing of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, which launched the global negotiations, the parties that agreed to it struggled to differentiate between rich nations that caused most of the warming and poorer countries that suffer disproportionately from it.

In other words, the discussion is framed around the idea that the countries that benefited most from industrialization should bear the greatest responsibility for dealing with the resulting warming.

Addressing this imbalance has become more difficult as the economies of developing countries have grown and rich nations have juggled competing costs, including war.

What can an annual summit achieve?

The summit gives countries a place to discuss solutions, including energy policies, financing schemes or financing needs.

Almost every summit is also attended by world leaders, giving an important signal that their countries are committed to the UNFCCC goals. The presence of leaders also helps countries hold each other accountable for past promises.

But the annual COP is only the main event in an ongoing process. Country representatives meet throughout the year to build support for new climate action proposals before the COP, where they can be agreed by consensus of all countries.

Does the process work?

While each summit is meant to promote global climate action from the previous year, the event also gives countries a chance to show their citizens that the issue is being addressed.

Crucially, the exercise saw countries count and report their emissions and helped move hundreds of billions of dollars in climate aid to developing countries.

By requiring consensus decisions, the process also ensures strong global support for agreed actions, improving the chances that those actions will be implemented.

But the pace of progress has been too slow to limit rising global temperatures. Since the COP summits began in 1995, both emissions and temperatures have continued to rise, meaning the world is on the path to extreme climate change.

Supporters of the UNFCCC process say there is no alternative to negotiating major socioeconomic changes to try to limit global warming.

What will we get from COP29?

This year’s summit is hoping for a few key agreements: a new annual climate finance target, a deal to make multilateral carbon credit markets work and more money for committed aid to countries already hit by costly climate disasters.

In addition, negotiators will continue to work on technical agreements that build on the work done at previous summits.

Outside the formal framework of the COP, groups of countries could launch their own initiatives or commit funding to specific projects.

Companies are likely to announce commercial deals related to climate action as financiers try to raise money for climate investment.

What is Azerbaijan’s role in COP29?

Azerbaijan holds the presidency of COP29 this year, when the rotating presidency of the COP went to Central and Eastern Europe.

Next year, Brazil will serve as Latin America’s host for COP30.

As a summit host, a country works throughout the year to lead pre-summit negotiations and lobby other governments for ambitious action. This gives the presidency an important role in defining the summit’s priorities.

What else happens at a COP?

Beyond the country negotiations, the COP summit gives anyone a chance to try to get attention – or funding – for their cause.

Hundreds of side events see activists and scientists rub shoulders with industry lobbyists and banking heavyweights.

Public conference stages host panel discussions on topics from ocean acidification to designing carbon offset projects.

An exhibition hall, called the “Green Zone”, includes talks led by national delegations, non-profit organizations and corporations.

While some summits have seen large organized protests, such as the rally of thousands outside COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, the last two conferences in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates allowed protests only in designated, disconnected areas.

Azerbaijan, which has also banned public protests, is likely to see little civic action outside the conference’s high-security venue.