President Emmanuel Macron will not travel to Azerbaijan for COP29 which will open in Baku on Monday November 11. A first for a French head of state since 2015.
An unusual absence. The Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher announced Wednesday November 6 that Emmanuel Macron will not go to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, which will begin Monday November 11. A first since 2015.
“No French leader will participate in the high-level segment,” she told the Senate, referring to the second week of negotiations, when ministers usually speak to the press.
“This is the first time since the Paris agreement (in 2015 Editor’s note),” underlined the minister, assuring that she would have preferred that COP29 “not be held in Baku”.
“No empty chair policy”
“We will not play the politics of the empty chair because that is playing the politics of our opponents” and “leave room for those who could push for an agreement against the climate”, however, supported Agnès Pannier-Runacher, then that a French delegation must go to Baku.
Political figures from all sides then responded to him the next day, Thursday, in an article published in Le Figaro, denouncing “the autocratic, polluting and corrupting regime of Azerbaijan”. They called for an entire “boycott” of the event, while the Minister of Ecological Transition is expected on site.
For its part, the Élysée puts the absence of the Head of State at the UN summit into perspective. Emmanuel Macron “does not systematically participate in all COPs”, assured the presidency to HuffPost.
A call from Yannick Jadot
Agnès Pannier-Runacher responded on Wednesday to environmentalist senator Yannick Jadot who “asked her to boycott the COP for the climate” citing “the Armenians” and “human rights”.
“Far from calming President Aliyev, this COP29 pushes him to exacerbate the repression against the Armenian populations, to increasingly threaten Armenia, to lock up political opponents,” assured the elected official from Paris.
“I am the first to defend COPs and international cooperation on climate, but when a country uses a COP to repress, when a country uses a COP to sell its oil diplomacy, our responsibility, your responsibility, is to not to participate in it,” said Yannick Jadot.
The question of human rights in Azerbaijan
Around a hundred heads of state and government from around the world are due to gather on November 12 and 13 in Baku, Azerbaijan, to discuss the fight against climate change.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in conflict for decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave under Azerbaijani sovereignty. Populated mainly by Armenians, it was taken back militarily by Baku in September 2023, and the entire population of nearly 120,000 people took refuge in Armenia.
Peace negotiations between the two countries have not yet been concluded despite increasing pressure from the international community on Baku for the peace agreement to be signed before COP29. In the run-up to this UN summit, the issue of human rights abuses in Azerbaijan was denounced in particular last month in the European Parliament.
Several absent
Emmanuel Macron will not be the only one absent. For very different reasons, linked to the political crisis Germany is going through, Chancellor Olaf Scholz canceled his trip to Baku, although he had planned to give a speech there.
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will also not be on the trip in order to “focus on her institutional functions”, according to one of her spokespersons. Outgoing United States President Joe Biden and his Brazilian counterpart Lula will also pass, the latter for health reasons, according to Reuters.
Armenia was elected to host COP17 on biodiversity in 2026. It was opposed to Azerbaijan.
