Big countries absent from annual UN climate conference in Azerbaijan; AP explains

(12 Nov 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Baku, Azerbaijan – 12 November 2024
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press:
“Here at United Nations climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, we are in World Leader Day, and the star today was the United Kingdom’s Keir Starmer. Why? Because he proposed… said that his government is going to try to cut heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions by 81% over the next several years. That is much more ambitious than almost any other country we’ve seen. And that got pretty good reviews. The trouble is, he was the only star-powered world leader and the only one making such an ambitious proposal. Usually these climate talks in the first two days are chock full of world leaders, sort of celebrity leaders. It’s like the World Cup. You see all these stars. This year, it’s sort of like the World Chess Championship: names most people don’t know.”
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2. SOUNDBITE (English) Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press:
“Most of the time here it was people like the Belarus president talking about, hey, all the countries that are causing the pollution aren’t here. At least their leaders aren’t here. The top 13 nation polluting nations did not have their leaders speak today or tomorrow. That’s a big thing and that’s 73% of the carbon pollution that’s in the atmosphere and their leaders didn’t speak. What you got was a lot of leaders from smaller, what we might even call ‘victims’ countries of climate change. They don’t cause it. They produce very little carbon dioxide comparatively, compared to the United States, China or India. But what they do get is the damages, the hurricanes. So we had the head of the United Nations climate program, whose home island was severely damaged by Hurricane Beryl talking about that. You had Mia Mottley, the Barbados Prime Minister talking about Hurricane Beryl. You had the Spanish Prime Minister talking about flooding in Spain that is deadly. All these places that have been badly hit were talking about how much they’re hurting.”
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press:
“So what these poor nations want is essentially money because they need to wean themselves off of coal, oil and natural gas, which is causing the world to warm. But that costs money. And that’s what they’re asking for from the rich nations. They want money for doing that. They want money to adapt to climate change in the future world. And then they also want money for damages that climate change is causing and has already caused.”
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press:
“How much are we talking? We are talking right now. It’s 100 billion a year. The poorer nations are asking for $1.3 trillion a year. And sources tell The Associated Press negotiations are not going well on that topic right now.”
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STORYLINE:
World leaders have converged on the United Nations annual climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, though some major figures are missing.

This year’s talks, known as COP29, won’t be as high-profile as last year’s, with fewer leaders scheduled to speak. Those of the top two carbon polluting countries — China and the United States — will be absent. So will heads of state from China, India, and European nations like Germany and France.

“All the countries that are causing the pollution aren’t here,” explained The AP’s Seth Borenstein.

“The top 13 nation polluting nations did not have their leaders speak today or tomorrow,” he added.

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