BAKU, Azerbaijan — World leaders are meeting Tuesday at the United Nations climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, although big names and powerful countries are absent, unlike previous climate talks that dominated soccer's World Cup.
But the 2024 COP29 climate negotiations are very similar to the International Chess Federation's world championships, with no visible names but great potential and strategy. The top leaders of the 13 biggest carbon dioxide emitters will not appear. Their nations are responsible for more than 70% of the 2023 greenhouse gases.
“The people responsible for this are not there,” Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said during his speech at the conference. “How effective are our actions in this meeting, when the President of France, which was the country responsible for Paris and is not even here, feels that it is not important? We have nothing to be proud of.”
France is not alone. The world's biggest polluters and strongest economies – China and the United States – do not post their No. 1 emissions. The heads of state of India and Indonesia are also absent, meaning that the four most populous countries with more than 42% of the world's population have no speaking leaders.
“It is a sign of the absence of political action. There is no sense of urgency,” said climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics. He said this explains “the bad situation we find ourselves in.”
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Leaders highlight the inevitable warming and energy transition
The world has seen the hottest day, month and year on record “and a major phase in climate destruction,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the world leaders in attendance.
But Guterres was optimistic, saying, in a veiled reference to the re-election of Donald Trump in the United States, that “the clean energy revolution is here. No party, no business, no government can stop it.”
United Nations officials say that in 2016, when Trump was first elected, there were 180 gigawatts of clean energy and 700,000 electric cars around the world. There are now 600 gigawatts of clean energy and 14 million electric vehicles.
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev kicked off a planned two days of talks by world leaders by applauding Armenia, western media, climate activists and critics who highlighted his country's rich history of oil and gas and trade, calling it hypocritical as the United States is the world's largest country. . oil producer. He said it is “incorrect” to call Azerbaijan a “petrostate” because it produces less than 1% of the world's oil and gas.
Oil and gas are “God's gift” like the sun, wind and minerals, Aliyev said. “Countries should not be criticized for having them. And we should not be blamed for bringing these services to the market because the market needs them.”
Pastor Fletcher Harper, of GreenFaith, in a statement called out the religious reference and instead called fossil fuels “literally the highway to hell for billions of people and the planet.”
As the host and president of the climate talks, called COP29, Aliyev said his country will fight for a green transition away from fossil fuels, “but at the same time, we have to be realistic.”
With so many heavyweights left, the UK and smaller countries are filling the void
One of the most notable leaders to hold these talks is UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He announced a goal to reduce emissions by 81% from 1990 levels by 2035, in line with the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.
Many climate analysts welcomed the announcement. “It puts a very strong barrier on other countries,” said Debbie Hillier, Mercy Corps' climate policy lead. Nick Mabey from the climate think tank E3G said “other countries should follow ambitious targets.”
There was also a strong showing from leaders of some of the most climate-vulnerable countries. Many presidents of small island nations and more than a dozen leaders from different countries in Africa spoke at the two-day World Leaders Summit.
“Our ancestors counted the waves with sticks, coconut leaves and shells. It's in our blood to know when the tide is turning. And with the weather, the situation is changing today,” said Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine. “Time will judge those who fail to make a change.”
United Nations officials downplayed the lack of a country star head, saying all countries are represented and active in climate talks.
Another operational issue is that next week, the leaders of powerful countries should be part of the world in Brazil for the G20 meetings. The recent election in the United States, the collapse of the German government, natural disasters and personal illnesses have also made some leaders blind.
Climate talks focus on money
A major focus of climate finance discussions, rich countries are trying to help poor countries pay for transitioning their economies away from fossil fuels, dealing with future climate change damage and compensating for the damage caused by extreme weather.
Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists said: “It is no wonder that rich countries are trying to downplay the importance of this important financial COP,” said Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Nations negotiate huge amounts of money, from $100 billion a year to $1.3 trillion a year. That money “is not charity, it is an investment,” said Guterres. “Developing countries must not leave Baku empty-handed.”
In background talks, the G77 and China's negotiating team – which includes many of the world's developing countries – put forward a collective demand for annual funding of 1.3 billion dollars for the first time. The representative of the bloc said that the presented draft of the negotiations will not be accepted by them and will need to be revised.
“We will not get a new strong policy in Baku if it is not formed in a way that respects the positions of the G77,” said Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of the Moroccan climate think-tank Initiative for Climate and Development. “The G77 and China set the agenda.”
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