CRAP 29 Hijinks! Argentinian Delegation Ordered Home; Azeri President Insults France So French Ecology Minister Cancels
Argentinian negotiators ordered to withdraw from Cop29
This feels like a worrying development. My colleague Patrick Greenfield has been speaking to the Argentinian team in Baku. Argentine negotiators representing the government of Javier Milei have been ordered to withdraw from Cop29 and will no longer participate in the Baku climate summit.
Speaking to the Guardian, Argentina’s undersecretary for the environment Ana Lamas - the country’s most senior representative on the climate and nature after Milei downgraded the ministry - confirmed the decision first reported by Climatica. “It’s true. We have instructions from the ministry of foreign affairs to no longer participate. That’s all I can tell you,” she said. Lamas did not answer whether Argentina was planning on leaving the Paris agreement.
Argentina’s far right leader Milei has previously said that the climate crisis is a “socialist lie”. He threatened to withdraw from the Paris agreement during the election campaign last year but has since backed down. Yesterday, Javier Milei spoke with incoming US president Donald Trump, after which Milei’s spokesperson said Trump told his Argentine counterpart that he was his “favourite president”.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2024/nov/13/cop-29-leaders-speak-after-report-finds-climate-pledges-not-kept-live-updates
France’s minister for ecology is to cancel a trip to Baku to attend Cop29 after Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, made a speech earlier attacking France’s actions in its overseas territories. Agnes Pannier-Runacher told French lawmakers: “The comments made by President (Ilham) Aliyev at the opening of COP29 in Baku against France and Europe are unacceptable.”
It was a “flagrant violation of the code of conduct” for running United Nations climate talks, she said. And she further lashed out at Aliyev’s “equally unacceptable comments on fossil fuels” after he described his country’s vast oil and gas reserves as a “gift of God”. Despite her deciding not to attend in person, Pannier-Runacher said the team of French negotiators in Baku would not relent in their efforts to do a deal “to protect the planet and its populations” from climate change.
As we reported earlier, Aliyev drew loud applause from delegates of some Pacific island nations after a speech in which he slammed Paris for its response to independence protests that rocked New Caledonia this spring.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2024/nov/13/cop-29-leaders-speak-after-report-finds-climate-pledges-not-kept-live-updates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-6734da1c8f08fc3bf2f7eedd#block-6734da1c8f08fc3bf2f7eedd