The world has witnessed the hottest day, months, and year ever recorded "and a masterclass in climate destruction," stated UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the opening of the COP29 climate summit in Baku. "No country is safe," the Secretary-General noted, referring to meteorological phenomena intensifying due to climate change, such as "floods that devastate communities and destroy infrastructure," hurricanes, or droughts leading entire nations to famine.
Guterres has called for "polluters to pay" and advocated for taxes on maritime transport, aviation, and fossil fuel extraction. "The rich cause the problem, the poor pay the highest price," he stated before citing an Oxfam report indicating that "the richest billionaires emit more carbon in an hour and a half than an average person does in their entire life."
However, those who needed to hear him the most were not present as the 2024 COP29 starts with significant absences. The leaders of the 13 countries emitting the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will not attend the summit, although in 2023 they were responsible for over 70% of greenhouse gas emissions.
The biggest polluters and the strongest economies, China and the United States, will not send their top officials. Also absent from the conference are the leaders of the four most populous nations, accounting for over 42% of the world's population.
Nevertheless, Guterres maintained hope when he stated, in a veiled reference to the re-election of Donald Trump in the United States, that "the clean energy revolution is here. No group, no business, no government can stop it."
UN officials stated that in 2016, when Trump was first elected, there were 180 gigawatts of clean energy and 700,000 electric vehicles worldwide. Now there are 600 gigawatts of green energy and 14 million electric cars.
In his usual tone at COP meetings, Guterres sounded the alarm when he said, "Let's hear the ticking of the clock: we are in a countdown to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C, and time is not on our side."
The Secretary-General also called on developed countries to double funding for adaptation to at least $40 billion annually by 2025. He emphasized that the gap between adaptation needs and funding could reach up to $359 billion per year by 2030, equivalent to "lost lives and crops and denied development."
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev opened the two days of world leaders' speeches by lashing out at Armenia, Western media, climate activists, and critics emphasizing the country's rich history with oil and gas and their commercialization, calling them hypocrites as the United States is the world's largest oil producer. He stated that it was not "fair" to label Azerbaijan as an "oil state" because it produces less than 1% of the world's oil and gas.
Oil and gas are "a gift from God" just like the sun, wind, and minerals, Aliyev indicated, adding that "countries should not be blamed for having them. And they should not be blamed for bringing those resources to the market because the market needs them."