No Walloon minister will go to Cop 29, the UN conference on climate change. This is a first in 10 years. On the other hand, several federal ministers including the Minister of the Environment Zakia Katabi and the Prime Minister for Current Affairs Alexander De Croo will make the trip.
The Belgian delegation, which will participate in the 29th UN Conference on climate change, COP29, from November 11 to 22 in Baku (Azerbaijan), will not include a Walloon minister in its ranks, a first in 10 years and the COP20 in Lima (Peru).
On the other hand, the Prime Minister for current affairs, Alexander De Croo, will be on the trip, as will the federal ministers Zakia Khattabi (Climate, Environment) and Tinne Van der Straeten (Energy). For the Brussels-Capital Region, which has not yet formed a government following the last elections, the outgoing Minister of Climate Transition, Environment and Energy, Alain Maron, will be present in the capital Azeri.
Since the historic COP21, which saw the adoption of the Paris Agreement aimed at containing global warming well below +2°C and if possible to +1.5°C, a minister from Wallonia ( or even several) had always participated in the annual high mass of the fight against climate change.
The new Walloon Minister of Energy and Air Climate Plan, Cécile Neven, justified her non-participation in COP29 by her desire to stay in Namur, at the start of the legislature, “to focus on regional priorities” which fall within its competence, “and in particular the implementation of the Air Climate Plan”. The latter was adopted in March 2023. Barely 5% of its measures have been carried out so far. Ms. Neven also underlined that it will be the Federal Minister of Climate who will lead the Belgian delegation in Baku while the Brussels minister will, this year, represent Belgium during European coordination at COP29.
The Belgian delegation will number around 140 people, including civil servants and experts, but also representatives of civil society and youth, business leaders… This is less than the 170 members of the black-yellow delegation -red during COP28 last year in Dubai.
As usual, the political kick-off of the UN climate conference will be given with the summit “high-level” which will bring together dozens of heads of state and government on November 12 and 13. The Belgian Prime Minister is expected to deliver his speech at COP29 on Tuesday, November 12.
Several tens of thousands of participants are expected in Baku where negotiations will focus in particular on setting a new climate financing objective, from 2025, to enable developing countries to mitigate global warming and deal with its consequences.
The current objective, of 100 billion dollars per year, was only met in 2022, two years late, by developed countries, to the great dismay of countries in the South.
cop29 climate conference
