Biggest name world leaders missing at UN climate talks, but others try to fill the void

World leaders are converging yesterday at the United Nations annual climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan although the big names and powerful countries are noticeably absent, unlike past climate talks which had the star power of a soccer World Cup.

But 2024’s climate talks are more like the International Chess Federation world championship, lacking the recognizable names but big on nerd power and strategy. The top leaders of the 13 largest carbon dioxide-polluting countries will not appear with their countries responsible for more than 70% of 2023’s heat-trapping gases.

Biggest polluters and strongest economies China and the United States aren’t sending their No. 1s. The four most populous nations with more than 42% of all the world’s population aren’t having leaders speak.

“It’s 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’re finding ourselves in.”

COP29 lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev stressed at a press conference yesterday that “success doesn’t depend on one country alone.”

“Unless all countries can slash emissions deeply, every country and household will be hammered harder than they currently are. We will be living in a nightmare,” he said.

Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev, United Kingdom’s prime minister Keir Starmer and Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan are the headliners of among the nearly 50 leaders set to speak during the event.

There’ll also be a strong showing is expected from the leaders of some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. Several small island nations presidents and over a dozen leaders from countries across Africa are set to speak over the two-day World Leaders’ Summit at COP29.

As a sense of how the bar for celebrity has lowered, yesterday morning photographers and video cameras ran along side one leader walking through the halls of the meeting. It was the emergency management minister for host country Azerbaijan.

United Nations officials downplayed the lack of head of state star power, saying that every country is represented and active in the climate talks.

One logistical issue is that next week, the leaders of the most powerful countries have to be half a world away in Brazil for the G20 meetings. The United States recent election, Germany’s government collapse, natural disasters and personal illnesses also have kept some leaders away.

The major focus of the negotiations is climate finance, which is rich nations trying to help poor countries pay for transitioning their economies away from fossil fuels, coping with climate change’s upcoming harms and compensating for damages from weather extremes.

Nations are negotiating over huge amounts of money, anywhere from $100 billion a year to $1.3 trillion a year. SETH BORENSTEIN, MELINA WALLING & SIBI ARASU, BAKU, MDT/AP