BRUSSELS: This year’s United Nations climate change meeting, known as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, will not be attended by world leaders from major economies, including the United States, the European Union, and Brazil.
According to a Commission spokesperson on Tuesday, political events in Brussels have forced European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to miss the COP29 climate summit.
The members of her new European Commission, which will steer EU policymaking for the ensuing five years, are being vetted by EU politicians there. The spokeswoman stated, “The president will concentrate on her institutional responsibilities as the Commission is in a transitional phase.”
According to a source in the Biden administration, US President Joe Biden will not attend the event either. On November 11, a few days after the US presidential election, COP29 gets underway.
After suffering a head injury last month, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has already canceled his travel to COP29. Not all world leaders attend UN climate summits, but some do. They have used their addresses at previous COP meetings to reaffirm their commitment to international efforts to slow down climate change or to announce new money and policies aimed at reducing CO2.
This year’s UN climate negotiations, where over 200 nations will attempt to agree on a massive boost in global spending to meet CO2-cutting goals, are overshadowed by the US election.
According to climate diplomats, it may be more difficult for COP29 to get an agreement for a significant boost in climate spending if Republican nominee Donald Trump wins. Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement during his first term as president.
