World leaders from major economies plan to skip this year’s United Nations climate change summit, COP29, which is scheduled to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan on November 11.
As per Reuters, these countries include the United States, the European Union and Brazil.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will miss the COP29 climate summit due to political developments in Brussels as their EU lawmakers are reviewing the members of her new European Commission, who will direct EU policy making for the next five years.
The spokesperson said in a statement, noting, “The Commission is in a transition phase and the president will therefore focus on her institutional duties.”
The US president will also miss the event, meanwhile last month, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva already cancelled the trip due to head injury.
Li Shuo, a climate diplomacy expert at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said that what countries do to raise additional finance for COP29 will be more important than which heads of state are present.
He added, “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.”
Climate diplomats are now worrying that a victory for Republican candidate Donald Trump, who pulled the US out of the Paris climate accord during his first term in office, could make it difficult to agree on a big increase in climate funding for COP29.
