Trump nominates New York representative as UN ambassador

The 29th UN climate conference opened on Monday in Azerbaijan with a call for global cooperation, six days after the re-election of Donald Trump. This comes at a time when developing countries are asking for hundreds of billions of dollars in aid.

“It is time to show that global cooperation does not stop the country whose name is on everyone’s lips here: the United States.”

The main theme of this COP, which lasts until November 22, is to set the amount of climate aid from developed states for developing countries so that they can develop without coal or oil, and can face more heat and floods. Today at 116 billion dollars per year (in 2022), the new commitment must be thousands of billions per year, asking the poor countries.

An unrealistic order of magnitude

But Westerners believe that this order of magnitude is unrealistic for the public finances.

COP29 President Mukhtar Babaev spoke of “hundreds of billions” in his opening speech on Monday, but a negotiator did not reveal his cards. Representatives negotiated until 4 a.m. Sunday through Monday.

“The Moment of Truth”

“COP29 is a great moment for the Paris agreement,” said Mr. Babaev, Azerbaijani Minister of Ecology, and former chief executive of the national oil company, Socar.

There are around 51,000 qualified participants, according to the UN Climate, less than at the unusual COP28 in Dubai last year. Many NGOs criticize that the conference was held in a country that celebrates oil as a “gift from God”, and where the authorities have arrested several environmental activists and they accuse.

It will take only one signature for Donald Trump, when he enters the White House on January 20, to join Iran, Yemen and Libya outside the agreement adopted in Paris in 2015 with countries around the world. This agreement is the force that has made it possible to reverse the trajectory of global warming over the past decade to around 3°C or less by 2100, according to calculations.

The text commits the world to limiting warming to 2°C and continuing efforts to keep it up to 1.5°C, compared to the end of the 19th century. The year 2024, torrential for many countries, will be almost certain at this point. If this continues in the long term, it will be considered that the climate limit has been reached.

Many absences

The Europeans are vowing to redouble their efforts to compensate for America’s withdrawal, but few will go to Baku. Neither Emmanuel Macron nor Olaf Scholz will participate in the summit of around a hundred leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday. Few G20 leaders will attend. The Brazilian Lula, host of next year’s COP30, is also absent.

For Switzerland, the Minister of Environment and Energy Albert Rösti will be present in the second part of the conference.

“Everyone knows that these talks will not be simple,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

Adonia Ayebare of Uganda, president of a negotiating bloc known as the G77 + China, which brings together developing countries, warns that the two-week talks will be difficult. “As soon as we talk about money, everyone shows themselves in their true light,” the diplomat confides to AFP.

China: there is no question of payment

This money, most of it loans, makes it possible to build solar power plants, improve irrigation, build dikes or help farmers cope with drought.

“We must (…) abandon the idea that climate finance is charity. A new climate finance target is good for every country, including the biggest and most rich,” said Simon Stiell.

But the mood in rich countries is one of austerity (in Europe) or international isolation (in the United States). Many want China and the Gulf countries to contribute more.

The Chinese negotiator replied that there was no question of “renegotiating” the UN texts, which clearly state that only developed countries, according to the old UN definition, are obliged to pay.