The COP29, set to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday, November 11, is already facing significant hurdles. Many global leaders will not be attending, and the summit is already marred by its first controversy.
Last week, Papua New Guinea’s Foreign Minister, Justin Tkatchenko, announced that his country would not participate in COP29, which is scheduled from November 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan. He described the summit as a “total waste of time,” expressing frustration regarding the “empty promises and inaction” resulting from the annual climate meeting. “The COP, the annual UN climate summit, has been consistently criticized for the lack of action from major emitting countries on climate issues. Papua New Guinea is one of the first countries to declare it will not participate, as major emitting nations have not taken the steps they promised,” The Guardian explains.
The cascading absences of many world leaders are unlikely to change the minds of this nation of 10 million people, which is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
U.S. President Joe Biden, following Donald Trump’s election in the United States, will not attend COP29. Neither will Brazilian President Lula, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, nor Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. European representation will be similarly sparse, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, focused on launching her second term, will not be going to Baku. The same goes for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose coalition has just collapsed. French President Emmanuel Macron will also not be making the trip.
A Stain on the Event
“The decision of key European leaders not to attend COP29 comes at a time when the world expects the EU to show greater climate leadership following Donald Trump’s reelection, who withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement during his first term and aims to do so again,” Bloomberg reminds us. “The annual COP summits serve as a forum where countries devise strategies to fulfill the commitments made in Paris to limit global warming.” To further undermine the credibility of the upcoming summit, the BBC revealed on Friday, November 8, that “a senior official from the COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan appears to have used his role to arrange a meeting to discuss potential agreements on fossil fuels.”
In a covert recording, Elnur Soltanov, the general director of the Azerbaijani COP29 team, is heard discussing “investment opportunities” in the state oil and gas company Socar with a man posing as a potential investor. Elnur Soltanov is also Azerbaijan’s Deputy Minister of Energy and sits on the board of Socar. This raises concerns, especially since at the last COP, countries agreed on a phase-out of fossil fuels.
This is not the first time representatives of a host country have exploited the climate summit to discuss potential investments in fossil fuels. During the previous edition held in the United Arab Emirates, local leaders similarly arranged meetings to negotiate oil contracts.
