New Delhi: The biggest climate summit of the year, the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29), will be devoid of star power with leaders from the US, China, Japan and Brazil planning to give the conclave in Baku, Azerbaijan, later this week a miss.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, is unlikely to attend the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, that is scheduled to be held on 11-12 November. Senior officials from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) attributed this to “prior engagements”.
It’s still not confirmed if Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav will be present at the event, though ministry sources said he would sit it out as well.
Yadav was there at the 28th conference in Dubai last year, as was Modi, who addressed the Presidency’s session on “Transforming Climate Finance”—voicing concerns of the Global South and reiterating the urgency for means of implementation, particularly climate finance, to developing countries.
“The minister might be absent because of commitments around the Maharashtra elections. But this is not the final plan,” a senior ministry official told ThePrint. Earlier this year, the BJP had appointed Yadav as in-charge of the Maharashtra Assembly elections scheduled for 20 November.
With Yadav’s presence still unconfirmed, India’s delegation to the Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—popularly known as COP—will most likely be led by Kirti Vardhan Singh, the minister of state for environment, forest and climate change.
Singh also fronted the India delegation to the recent COP16 of the UN Convention on Biodiversity in Cali, Colombia.
A report by the Financial Times said the heads of Bank of America, Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank are also rethinking their attendance, citing “fewer client networking opportunities than at COP28 in Dubai last year”. The report also quoted an unnamed finance executive, who said, “You only go to the party when everyone is going.”
Long list of absentees
The most noticeable absence will be that of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. “The Commission is in a transition phase, and the president will therefore focus on her institutional duties,” a spokesperson of the European Commission was quoted by The Guardian.
Apart from Leyen, other tentative absentees would be outgoing US President Joe Biden and French leader Emmanuel Macron. The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will also reportedly miss this year’s talks due to a head injury.
Other countries whose heads may be absent are China, Japan, Australia and South Africa.
According to the UNFCCC speaker list, around 105 heads of state are expected to speak at COP29 World Leaders Climate Action Summit. This list does not mention Modi.
‘India will negotiate hard’
Senior officials from the environment ministry said the absence of Modi and Yadav in Baku would not impact India’s negotiations. “The focus of the government is clear. We will negotiate hard to protect India’s interests, and our delegates will do just that,” a ministry official told ThePrint.
The government is yet to disclose the names of the delegation members who will be travelling to Baku.
Experts said this year’s COP aimed to mobilise significant climate finance for developing nations. This funding would support their efforts in mitigating climate change, adapting to its impact, and addressing loss and damage, thereby contributing to global climate action and sustainable development.
Vaibhav Pratap Singh, Executive Director of Climate and Sustainability Initiative (CSI), a global research organisation for climate action, said developing nations—often constrained by limited capital—seek financial support from developed countries under the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities to address global climate change.
“The climate finance target of an annual USD 100 billion to be given by developed nations to developing countries by 2020 is yet to be met,” Singh said, adding that this was decided in the 15th edition of this annual event.
Singh explained that to address this gap, new financial targets under the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for the post-2025 period were expected to be proposed at this COP.
Experts also said while the presence of state heads portrayed a show of strength and commitment at an international forum, the action plans that countries bring to the negotiating table would matter more.
(Edted by Tikli Basu)
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