Editorial: COPs and robbers

As world leaders converged at the United Nations annual climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, the powerful countries were noticeably absent, unlike past climate talks which had the star power of a soccer World Cup. Observers referred to 2024's COP29 climate talks as more like the International Chess Federation world championship, lacking recognisable names, but high on nerd power and strategy. The top leaders of the 13 largest carbon dioxide-polluting countries did not make an appearance, although their economies were responsible for more than 70% of 2023's heat-trapping gases.

French President Emmanuel Macron was called out for skipping the gathering, despite France being responsible for the Paris Agreement. Apart from Macron, the leaders of US, China, India and Indonesia — the four most populous nations with more than 42% of all the world's population — have also preferred to forego attendance at the summit, which is being seen as symptomatic of the lack of political will to act. Interestingly, the meet is happening at a time, when Donald Trump has once again been elected to the Oval Office, a development, which experts surmised, spells bad news for those at the forefront of tackling climate change.

The last time Trump, a climate change denier, was elected president, he withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, halted climate funding, and significantly slowed international climate progress. This time around, stakeholders believe that Trump might embolden other countries — especially top polluters — to use the American withdrawal as an excuse to ease off their own efforts to curb carbon emissions. All these developments are transpiring as the world has witnessed the hottest day, months and year on record and a master class in climate destruction.

It is worth noting that on Tuesday, G77 and China, which includes many of the world's developing countries at the UN climate talks, rejected the framework for a draft negotiating text on a new climate finance goal — the central issue at this year's climate summit. The largest negotiating bloc representing around 130 countries, demanded that the new climate finance package should meet their needs and priorities, with a minimum quantum of $1.3 trillion. This amount should support mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage initiatives, and should be exclusively allocated to developing countries.

Emerging economies are also calling for developed countries to provide arrears for the $100 billion climate finance goal agreed to in 2009. First world nations had earmarked this sum to be disbursed annually to help developing nations adapt to and combat climate change by 2020. However, this target was only met in 2022, with loans accounting for around 70 percent of the total climate finance provided. In the aftermath of America’s abstinence, climate experts foresee the European Union, and strangely even China stepping up to fill the US leadership void, especially economically.

A case in point is UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has announced an 81% emissions reduction target on 1990 levels by 2035, in line with the Paris Agreement goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. Even in the US, a climate movement involving sub-national actors, investors, businesses, governors, mayors, referred to as We Are Still In was launched. What should also give us hope is that in 2016, when Trump was first elected, there were 180 gigawatts of clean energy and 700,000 EVs globally. Today, that number is 600 gigawatts with 14 million EVs.