BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — World leaders are converging Tuesday 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 Tuesday 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 .