Leaders From Key Countries Will Not Attend COP29 Climate Talks

Leaders from some of the world’s major economies, including the European Union, the United States and Brazil, will not be attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, this month.

COP29, which will convene from November 11 to 22, is expected to have more than 40,000 delegates in attendance.

European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will not attend the summit to prepare for a second term in office, reported The Guardian. Instead, a team of negotiators, including energy commissioner Kadri Simson and climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, will represent the commission at the talks.

Shirley Matheson, climate specialist at WWF, said the absence of von der Leyen brought up “serious questions” about the international and European commitment to battling the climate crisis.

“We cannot afford for climate action to move down on Europe’s agenda,” Matheson said.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — who had already canceled his trip after suffering a head injury last month — will also be absent at the conference, Reuters reported.

Li Shuo, Asia Society Policy Institute’s climate diplomacy expert, said actions by countries to marshall more funds for fighting climate change would be paramount.

“What matters most is leadership. Leaders should always be at the COP. But more important than their presence is the real commitments countries bring to the table,” Shuo said, as reported by Reuters.

Mexico, Australia, China and Japan are also not listed in the most recent United Nations agenda for speeches by leaders at this year’s climate talks.

Climate diplomats have said the reelection of Republican Donald Trump — who removed the U.S. from the Paris Agreement when he was president the first time — could hinder a consensus on a substantial increase in climate funding at COP29.

Greenpeace is calling for a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) at COP29. The NCQG represents a commitment to significantly increase public financing for developing countries to help with climate change mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage, as well as making major polluters like the fossil fuel industry pay for the harms they have caused, a press release from Greenpeace International said.

“The NCQG is expected to set the terms determining who pays for the burgeoning costs of climate action over the next decade and beyond and whether countries and communities least responsible for causing the climate crisis get the support they urgently need and are entitled to,” said Tracy Carty, Greenpeace International climate politics expert, in the press release. “Trillions of dollars are needed for the climate action plans of developing countries. The headline outcome of the NCQG needs to be an unambiguous commitment from rich developed countries to significantly increase public finance to support developing countries to respond to escalating climate impacts and transition to renewables.”

The Group of 20 Summit — where the world’s leading economies gather to discuss the financing of the climate transition — will be held from November 18 to 19, 2024, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, overlapping with the COP29 climate summit.