BAKU – World leaders gather Tuesday at the annual United Nations climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, although big names and powerful countries are noticeably absent, unlike previous climate negotiations that had star power of a football World Cup.

But the 2024 climate negotiations are more like the International Chess Federation World Championship, lacking recognizable names but focused on nerd power and strategy. The main leaders of the 13 most carbon dioxide polluting countries will not appear. Their nations are responsible for more than 70% of heat-trapping gases in 2023.

The world’s biggest polluters and strongest economies – China and the United States – are not sending their No. 1s. The heads of state of India and Indonesia are also not present, meaning that the four most populous countries, which represent more than 42% of the world’s population, do not have the floor.

“This is symptomatic of the lack of political will to act. There’s no sense of urgency,” said climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics. He said this explains “the absolute mess we find ourselves in.”

Leaders emphasize inevitable transition to clean energy

The world experienced the hottest day, month and year on record “and a master class in climate destruction,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders in attendance.

But Guterres remained hopeful, saying, in a veiled reference to Donald Trump’s re-election in the United States, that the “clean energy revolution is here.” No group, no company, no government can stop it.

United Nations officials said that in 2016, when Trump was first elected, there were 180 gigawatts of clean energy and 700,000 electric vehicles worldwide. There are now 600 gigawatts of clean energy and 14 million electric vehicles.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev kicked off two days of speeches from world leaders by lambasting Armenia, Western media, climate activists and critics who have highlighted the country’s rich history and oil and gas trade of his country, calling them hypocrites since the United States is the greatest country in the world. oil producer. He said it was “not fair” to call Azerbaijan a “petro-state” because it produces less than 1% of the world’s oil and gas.

Oil and gas are “a gift from God,” just like the sun, wind and minerals, Aliyev said. “Countries should not be blamed for having such measures. And we should not blame them for putting these resources on the market because the market needs them.”

As host and president of the climate talks, called COP29, Aliyev said his country would do everything possible for a green transition away from fossil fuels, “but at the same time we have to be realistic.”

Officials play down lack of heavy goods vehicles

Aliyev, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are the headliners of around fifty leaders who will speak on Tuesday.

Leaders from some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries will also be in attendance. Several presidents of small island nations and more than a dozen leaders of African countries are expected to speak at the two-day World Leaders Summit at COP29.

To show how low the bar for celebrity has been lowered, on Tuesday morning, photographers and video cameras raced alongside an executive walking the halls of the meeting. This was the Minister of Emergency Management of the host country, Azerbaijan.

United Nations officials have downplayed the lack of power among heads of state, saying every country is represented and active in climate negotiations.

A logistical problem is that next week the leaders of the most powerful countries must be halfway around the world, in Brazil, for the G20 meetings. Recent elections in the United States, the collapse of the German government, natural disasters and personal illnesses have also kept some leaders on the sidelines.

The main focus of the negotiations is climate finance, that is, rich countries are trying to help poor countries finance the transition of their economies from fossil fuels, to cope with the future damages of climate change and to compensate for damage caused by extreme weather events.

Nations negotiate enormous sums, ranging from $100 billion per year to $1.3 trillion per year. This money “is not charity, it is an investment,” Guterres said.

“Developing countries must not leave Baku empty-handed,” Guterres said. “An agreement is essential.”

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