Oil giant hosts climate talks while world leaders skip the party in Azerbaijan

Global climate summit kicks-off in oil-rich Azerbaijan following last years UAE meeting. Major world leaders stay home while UK pushes forward with quick green energy switch-over plans

November 11 2024 , 12:26 AM  •  971 views

Oil giant hosts climate talks while world leaders skip the party in Azerbaijan

The yearly UN climate-change meeting has found its home in another oil-producing powerhouse - Azerbaijan (which pumps out 33-million tons of black gold yearly)‚ following last years gathering in UAE

The host countrys stance mirrors its predecessorʼs viewpoint:

A fossil fuel phase-out would push humanity back to caves

Statement from previous COP28 UAE president

Ed Miliband‚ UKʼs energy chief is pushing an ultra-fast green switch: his plan wants carbon-free power grid by early-2030s - a super-quick timeline thats raising eye-brows

The Baku meeting expects 80k visitors but major players dont show up:

  • Joe Biden - USA leader
  • Xi Jinping - Chinaʼs president
  • Nahrendra Modi - Indiaʼs top official
  • Key European figures like Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz

Meanwhile president-elect Donald Trump threatens to dump the 9-year old Paris climate deal‚ while German government falls apart due to green policy fights

UKʼs green-focused plans need twice as many power-lines built in 5 years than what took decades before; plus theres talk about giving money to a trillion-pound poor-nations fund (while rich places like China dont pay up)

The whole thing looks shaky - fancy talks in far-away Baku (2‚500 miles from London) wont make these hard-to-reach targets any easier to hit