A little less than a hundred heads of state and government are expected in Baku for the COP29 summit, the UN conference on climate change. Fewer major leaders will make the trip compared to the COPs in Dubai (2023) or Glasgow (2021).
The total number of accreditations should also be lower than that for the Dubai edition: around 51,000 participants are accredited, according to the UN Climate. Many NGOs criticize the holding of the conference in a country which celebrates oil as a “gift from God”, and where the authorities have arrested and are prosecuting several environmental activists.
Only a few G20 leaders confirmed their presence at this stage, according to AFP offices and a provisional UN list: Keir Starmer (United Kingdom), Giorgia Meloni (Italy), Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkey), Mohammed bin Salman (Saudi Saudi Arabia). Vladimir Putin is not scheduled, but Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is on the program. G20 countries emit 77% of greenhouse gases, according to UN Environment.
Spain (Pedro Sanchez) and Poland (Andrzej Duda) will be the largest countries in the EU represented by a manager. Among other EU countries, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Malta and the Czech Republic are expected to be present, according to a provisional UN list which may still evolve . European Council President Charles Michel is also on the list of speeches scheduled for Tuesday. But the European Commission confirmed that its president, Ursula von der Leyen, would not come.
Dozens of leaders from poor and climate-vulnerable countries, particularly from Africa and the Asia-Pacific, are coming to the COP in person, including William Ruto (Kenya) and Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus. Latin America will have almost no representation at the leadership level. Brazilian President Lula, Colombian Gustavo Petro or the new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, former member of the UN group of experts on climate, will be absent.
