The United Nations’ Cop29 climate summit kicks off in Azerbaijan’s capital city on Monday. Here are some key things to keep in mind during the annual two-week UN convention on climate change, the biggest event of the year to address the climate crisis.
US climate leaders will be there – but not the top ones
While President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris won’t be at this year’s conference, Biden administration officials from 20 departments and agencies will travel to Baku.
John Podesta, the Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy, will lead the delegation.
Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will be there, as well as Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, NOAA Administrator Dr. Rick Spinrad, and White House National Climate Advisor and Assistant to the President Ali Zaidi.
Many world leaders have dropped out
King Charles III, a longtime activist on environmental issues, will not be attending Cop this year after giving one of the keynote addresses to Cop28.
Charles is not the only high profile figure who will be missed in Baku – Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won’t be attending, despite the fact that his country will be the next hosts when Cop30 heads to Belem. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China’s President Xi Jinping, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also appear to be skipping.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen won’t be in attendance either, and from Europe French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin are all reported to be staying away.
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape said in August his country would not attend Cop29 as a protest against big nations for a lack of “quick support to victims of climate change.” Island nations are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including sea level rise.
Notably, an Israeli delegation will be there.
This is the first year above the 1.5-degree Celsius target
This was a record-breaking year again on planet Earth, and is expected to be the hottest on record. In addition, climate scientists now believe 2024 will be the first year with temperatures more than 1.5 degrees (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This worrying milestone will likely be a major topic at Cop29.
“Humanity’s torching the planet and paying the price,” United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres warned.
Nearly a decade ago, countries that joined the Paris Climate Agreement committed to pursue efforts to limit the global average surface temperature increase to 1.5 degrees. At Cops 26, 27, and 28 countries emphasised that the impacts of climate change would be much lower at a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees.
While breaches don’t mean the world has failed to achieve this temperature goal, they are early signs of getting perilously close to exceeding the long-term limit.
Slashing fossil fuel emissions remains the way to limit warming
Cutting emissions of greenhouse gases that warm Earth’s atmosphere remains the way to limit warming. At Cop28, governments agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. But without major action to back up those words, the outlook seems bleak for the coming years. Carbon dioxide and methane accumulation in the atmosphere is at the highest level ever recorded.
The US is one of the world’s top emitters, and a second term under Trump will likely set the world back even further. The former president is funded by the fossil fuel industry and has pledged to “drill, baby, drill,” during his next four years in office. He’s also called climate change a hoax and previously pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Azerbaijan has its own goals
This is the third time a major fossil fuel-producing country has hosted the UN climate summit, and the second in two years. It was hosted by the United Arab Emirates in Dubai last year.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev has announced plans to increase gas production, saying earlier this year that the country’s fossil fuel reserves were “a gift of the gods.”
“We largely are investing in increasing our gas production because Europe needs more gas from new sources,” he said in April. “Our oil and gas will be needed for many more years, including European markets.”
This week, the campaign group Global Witness posted a video of the conference’s chief executive allegedly agreeing to discuss fossil fuel deals at the summit itself.
