BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Agreements might not yet be brewing amongst negotiators at United Nations climate talks, but tea certainly is. It’s one of the clearest reminders that the climate summit — COP29 — is hosted by Azerbaijan. Attendees who roam for miles within the indoor venue have ample options to take a pit stop for sugar and caffeine: shops stack high mountains of pastries with sugary, nutty pakhlava and cardamom-tinged, crescent-shaped shekerbura.
At Azerbaijan’s country pavilion, women in Baku’s traditional dress pour the warm drink for visitors. All of it, like daily life in the city outside, revolves around tea — which climate change threatens around the globe. As world leaders descend on the capital city of Baku for climate talks, researchers who study tea report that in some regions around the world, tea cultivation could decrease by over half as rising temperatures, drought, heavy precipitation and erosion batter tea plants and the land they grow on.
Scientists are studying ways to improve tea varieties and preparing for a future where some tea production moves north, along with many other crops hard hit by climate change. Tea “is a source of livelihood for our region; especially for the local people, for tea producers,” said Keziban Yazici, a professor who has been studying the effects of climate change on tea, speaking in Turkish. “We need to take the necessary precautions against climate change to make this product sustainable.
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