COP 29 in Baku: another summit for nothing

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 29) is taking place from 11 to 22 November in Baku, Azerbaijan, in a particularly tense atmosphere. In addition to the fact that the country is a staunch defender of fossil fuels, especially oil, there are some notable absentees: Xi Jinping, Lula, Narendra Modi, Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron… Since the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, France has been in open crisis with the autocrat Ilham Aliyev, who has been in charge of the country since 2003. Joe Biden’s American delegation, for its part, has been discredited by the return of Donald Trump to the White House next January, who promises to roll back the world’s leading power’s climate ambitions. These conditions are all the more unfavourable given that the theme of COP 29 is the financing of the environmental transition and financial aid for developing countries, as demanded in particular by African countries. The objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change seem further away than ever: in 2024, greenhouse gas emissions rose again.

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