U.N. Climate Talks Are On Life Support Before They Begin

The only good thing that can be said about the runup to next week’s United Nations climate conference, COP29, is that it would be hard not to exceed expectations.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who has attended each high-level climate meeting since taking office in 2019, has decided not to attend COP29 in Baku. “The commission is in a transition phase and the president will therefore focus on her institutional duties,” a spokesman said, according to The Guardian.

She joins a growing list of leaders who have deemed this COP beneath their attendance: Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Lula, Xi, and more, all staying home. The negotiations will proceed, of course; in general the presidents and prime ministers and so on show up over a COP’s first few days, give a speech, and leave the hard stuff to the diplomats and experts in back rooms. But at least they show up.

One observer called von der Leyen’s decision a “fatal signal” for the talks, which theoretically will produce a new international climate finance agreement where rich countries like those in Europe provide much, much more money to the developing world to deal with the changing climate.

Meanwhile, of course, that other very bad sign: Trump’s victory on Tuesday casts a dark pall over the talks. “Should we all even go to COP now?” wondered a delegate from a G20 country, according to the Financial Times. “[Trump] has been clear on his position on climate change. It makes things difficult.”

Heartening! COP29 begins in five days.