Baku climate talks: India not attending World Leaders Climate Action Summit

BAKU — India is not attending the two-day World Leaders Climate Action Summit (WLCAS) beginning Tuesday with country statements at the 2024 UN climate conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan that is focussed heavily on securing a new climate finance target for countries most vulnerable to climate impacts.

Ilham Aliyev, President of host Azerbaijan, has invited heads of state and governments to participate in the WLCAS when the first part of the high-level segment will also take place.

Eighty-two national leaders, vice-presidents and senior envoys are lined up to speak on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley is the pick of the bunch, but there’s a host of leaders including Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, Nepal’s Ram Chandra Paudel and Congo’s Judith Suminwa Tuluka whose countries have been battered this year.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer will offer the rare prospect of praise as he lands the UK’s new 2035 target.

UK climate advisors recommended 81 per cent greenhouse gas cuts on 1990 levels last month.

Climate boss Ed Miliband says London is committed to “accelerating” climate action, but don’t expect a hike on climate finance from a cash-strapped nation, pointed out a climate negotiator from a developing country.

The invitation to the WLCAS signifies the importance for world leaders to engage and enhance ambition and enable action to reduce emissions, adapt to climate change, and address loss and damage, to implement and transform key climate-related decisions into concrete actions and credible plans to tackle climate change, says the host.

Responding to India not attending the WLCAS, an India-origin observer at the climate talks told IANS on condition of anonymity, “These are not talks, just the country statements. Not all countries are supposed to make it. Another high-level segment is towards the end of the summit. India is very much part of it.”

Explaining further, the observer said, “Since leaders started coming, so a stage was created for them to make speeches, only a recent phenomenon, post-Glasgow (in 2021). So nothing normal about it.”

Responding to IANS that how the Indian PM not attending COP does not affect Indian representation during negotiations, R.R. Rashmi, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, said, “The heads of governments attending climate COPs in the very first few days is a recent trend. It is not mandatory. It started from 2021 when the commencement of the Paris Agreement had just started and was needed to put it on a high pedestal.

“So, it depends really on the agenda and the need for advancing a specific goal. This year agenda of the COP is more technical than political as it focusses on finance goal where the shoe is on the other foot. No major announcements except those relating to private sector involvement and carbon markets are expected. The ministers from all countries, including India, will join in any case in the second week when the negotiations are at full pace when India is expected to have its high-level participation.”

The second part of the high-level segment will take place on November 19 and 20. This will be for parties whose heads of state and governments did not deliver a national statement during the first part.

India’s Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh will be leading a 19-member delegation and deliver India’s national statement at the high-level segment in the second segment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav had attended COP28 last year in Dubai. PM Modi delivered the national statement at the opening ceremony of the high-level segment.

India has so far played a key role in shaping global climate finance frameworks to address the urgent funding needed for both mitigation and adaptation efforts.

At Baku, India will seek the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), a framework that aims to replace the annual commitment of $100 billion by 2020 made by developed countries in 2009 — a target met only once, in 2022.

Just ahead of the onset of WLCAS, COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev held a bilateral meeting with John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the U.S. President for International Climate Policy, to discuss the urgent need for enhanced global collaboration and partnerships to drive inclusive climate action solutions and build on the outcomes of the first day of COP.

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell addressed the official opening of COP29 on Monday, making a passionate plea for urgent, global cooperation on climate change.

“We mustn’t let 1.5 slip out of reach. Even as temperatures rise, the implementation of our agreements must claw them back,” said Stiell.

“Clean energy and infrastructure investment will reach two trillion dollars in 2024. Almost twice that of fossil fuels. The shift to clean-energy and climate-resilience will not be stopped. Our job is to accelerate this and make sure its huge benefits are shared by all countries and all people,” he said.

As part of its plan to enhance ambition and enable action, the COP29 presidency, in partnership with the International Energy Agency (IEA), on Monday shared five key opportunities for COP29 to demonstrate positive progress on energy goals identified at COP28.

The five opportunities identified are: Scale up energy storage and electricity grids as a key enabler to achieving the global goal of tripling renewable energy capacity this decade and ensuring that the full benefits are realised; ensure countries accelerate policy implementation to achieve the goal of doubling energy efficiency progress by 2030; maintain a focus on cutting emissions from methane and fossil fuels; implement solutions to boost clean energy investment in developing economies to support their transitions; and the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions should be informed by the Global Stocktake (GST) outcomes.

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