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
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
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