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The UN’s Cop29 climate summit began on Monday amid stark warnings about worsening planetary conditions and anxiety over Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Thousands of diplomats, scientists and leaders have arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan, to negotiate the funding needed to tackle the climate crisis, the toughest topic in climate negotiations.
Amid the already enormous task of raising more than $1 trillion in financing for developing countries to prepare for and mitigate the climate crisis, anxiety about the U.S. election was prevalent at the summit.
Just hours after the opening ceremony, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) delivered a report predicting that this year would be hotter than last year, as many others have been warning.
That’s not surprising, considering that 2024 has seen some of the greatest disasters on record, from wildfires of unprecedented scale to devastating floods across Asia and Europe.
But the significantly worsening state of the planet was overshadowed by fears about the second US president, Donald Trump, who was at the center of all discussions.
Trump has major concerns about Cop29.
President Trump’s campaign team said the president-elect would withdraw the United States, the world’s second-largest polluter, from the landmark Paris Agreement during his final term in office.
There were concerns at the summit about what the U.S. commitments announced here in Baku would mean at a time when the next administration is very likely to reverse them.
Bhekumuzi Bhebhe, executive director of Power Shift Africa, said the summit was “a test of how serious rich countries are about fighting the climate crisis.”
“At Cop29, Africa needs leaders who recognize climate finance as a responsibility rooted in historical responsibility rather than a charity,” he said, adding that a U.S. retreat under President Trump could have “devastating” ramifications for Africa. .
U.S. envoy John Podesta sought to reassure the summit. “This is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet.
“Facts are still facts. Science is still science. The fight is bigger than one election, one political cycle in one country.”
The climate envoy, who served as President Joe Biden’s senior adviser, said he knew the United States had “failed” the world.
“I am painfully aware of the sudden departure of the United States after the US presidential election after disappointing the parties of the climate regime, which has at times followed a pattern of strong, participatory and effective American leadership.
“And I know that as the dangers we face grow more and more catastrophic, these disappointments will become more and more difficult to bear. But that’s reality.”
Others also emphasized that the show must go on. Some said the U.N. process does not depend on national elections and urged other leaders “not to hide behind American inaction.”
“Climate diplomacy on a boiling planet is not limited to climate deniers,” said Ben Goloff, senior activist at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
“Biden officials should use the next two months to build a bulwark of protection and secure our climate legacy before Trump takes office.”
Activists have repeatedly reminded politicians that increasing funding is critical to climate action. The world’s developing countries need about $1 billion a day to cope with today’s extreme climate impacts, which is just 1.3 degrees of global warming. UN Environment Program (Unep) report It was published on Thursday.
“You can’t stop the planet from collapsing by spending less on climate finance than you spend on ice cream.” said Teresa Anderson, Global Climate Justice Director at ActionAid. “If we are serious about climate action, we have to pay for climate action.”
But experts acknowledged there is a gap in climate leadership that needs to be filled by other countries stepping in. There is already a lot of anticipation in the UK, with Keir Starmer expected to attend the leaders’ summit and announce revised climate targets.
Activists are also looking to China to fill the gap.
“It is in China’s own interests to act,” said Yuan Ying, Greenpeace China representative. “It appears that China and other countries will fill the gap in climate leadership.”
Minimized summit in Azerbaijan
The summit venue set up at Baku Stadium was significantly reduced in terms of number of attendees and size compared to last year’s Expo City Center in Dubai.
Many participants welcomed a smaller, easier-to-navigate location.
“It’s not about the size of the meeting or the number of participants, but rather an agenda driven by negotiations.” said Carolina Pasquali of Greenpeace Brazil. independence.
“There was a lot of green cleaning and corporate activity last year,” she said. “They made it a fake solution.”
What is not so welcome is that the number of heads of state attending this time is reduced.
When the Senior Leaders’ Summit begins on Tuesday, only 92 leaders will be present at the summit where more than 200 countries are negotiating a climate agreement.
Most of the missing faces are from wealthy countries. Prime Minister Biden and Prime Minister Kamala Harris will not attend, and the leaders of Germany and France are busy with domestic issues. Canada, Brazil, South Africa and India are all missing.
This makes the leaders’ summit very lackluster at a meeting where the main outcome will be judged by how much money the big countries agree to put on the table to tackle the climate crisis. However, small island states and African countries, which are at the forefront of the climate crisis, sent delegations.
Part of the conversation on the ground is also Azerbaijan’s role as a petrostate. According to a BBC report, shortly before the summit began, Elnur Soltanov, CEO of Cop29 and Azerbaijan’s Deputy Energy Minister, spoke with potential individuals masquerading as potential “investment opportunities” in Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company. He said he heard them discussing it. was an investor and seemed open to talking about such a deal separately from Cop itself.
“It’s not our first time. [summit] With a fossil fuel presidency… “Mr Pasquali said. Documents leaked last year showed that the host UAE’s Cop28 team planned to discuss oil and gas deals with more than a dozen visiting countries.
“Every country has a responsibility to step up and show leadership. “This is the agenda of our generation and time is running out as the situation gets worse every year,” she said.
