This article was originally published in English
The president of the European Commission, as well as the presidents of France and Russia, will not attend the climate summit to be held in Azerbaijan at the end of the month.
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The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will not attend the UN climate summit which will be held in Baku from November 11, according to a spokesperson for the EU executive.
“The president will not attend the COP this year”the Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday, adding that given that the Commission is in a transition phase, “Ursula von der Leyen will concentrate on her institutional functions”.
Earlier today, Euronews announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron would also not attendciting sources close to the UN.
In Europe, the leaders of Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain and the Czech Republic have said they will attend the summit in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, where more than a hundred leaders will gather to review the climate objective set nine years ago in Paris.
TheCOP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan is already nicknamed the “financial COP”, the central question of the summit being determine who will pay for the billions of dollars that developing countries need to cope with extreme weather conditions and reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.
China does not contribute to the current annual envelope of $100 billion, which will be replaced by a new system from 2025.
Tense diplomatic situation between France and Azerbaijan
Relations between Paris and Baku have continued to become strained in recent months.
Last September, a Frenchman was sentenced to three years in prison for graffiti in the metro in Azerbaijan. The Quai d’Orsay then denounced a “arbitrary and openly discriminatory treatment”et advised against French nationals from going there, pointing out the risk of“arbitrary arrest” and a “unfair judgment”.
A few months earlier, a Frenchman accused of espionage had been placed in pre-trial detention. Paris denied the facts, but two of its diplomats were then expelled from Azerbaijan. The French authorities then took reciprocal action.
France’s support for Armenia in the conflicts between it and Azerbaijan remains a sticking point between Paris and Baku.
At the beginning of October, the NGOs Human Right Watch and Freedom Now published a report stating the repressive turn of the screwin the run-up to COP29, targeting in particular opponents of the regime. In total, more than thirty people have been imprisoned in recent months in the country.
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