Right-wing President Javier Millay has withdrawn the Argentine delegation from the Cop29 United Nations climate change summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The decision, which was also confirmed by representatives, means the South American country will no longer participate in the United Nations climate change negotiations, which are expected to be finalized next week.
It is not clear whether Argentina will completely withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
The delegation received an order on Wednesday night to cease participating in negotiations. Climatica The news came just hours after the speeches by key leaders of the summit concluded. Another delegation from Argentina, scheduled to arrive in Baku next week, was told to cancel their plans.
Argentina’s move increases concerns about the influence of right-wing leaders on global climate action. Hopes for COP29 were already dampened by concerns that Donald Trump would return as US president and the US could withdraw from the Paris climate accord again.
Mr. Millais’ decision to withdraw from Cop29 is consistent with his political stance and intention to strengthen ties with the United States. Argentina’s president is a climate science denier and calls the environmental crisis a “socialist lie.”
Argentina will now be represented only by civil society and private sector organizations in Baku, meaning the country will be excluded from key negotiations.
“More than 50 people from different sectors will continue to actively participate in Cop29 and support Argentina’s climate change agenda in difficult circumstances,” Sustentabilida Sin Fronteras (SSF), the country’s independent organization, said in a statement. “We are promoting this,” he said.
Activists said Millay’s decision was not in Argentina’s interests, especially since the summit’s main objective is to create a fund for countries of the Global South.
A spokesperson for Greenpeace Andino, the NGO’s South American branch, said: “Withdrawal from decision-making on an issue as sensitive and important as funding is important for those who could benefit from the deal reached in Baku. It’s a lost opportunity for us.”
Millay’s decision “isolates Argentina from the international community” and “sends a negative signal to investors and businesses,” the SSF said.
Some campaigners in Baku said they were “shocked” by the decision, but added that it would not prevent them from advancing the interests of the country and the wider region.
“We have experienced regime change in the police era,” said climate campaigner Maria Azul Schwarzman. independent person In Baku. “But there was some kind of consistency when it came to foreign policy on climate change.”
This time, she said, “I was shocked because I believed there were basic rules that would never change.”
He added that the Millais government has “demonstrated time and time again on a variety of topics that these fundamental principles do not exist and that the consensus we thought we had as a society no longer exists.”
At the General Assembly in September, Millay criticized the United Nations for trying to “impose an ideological agenda” and distanced Argentina from the 2030 sustainable development agenda. “We are at the end of the cycle. The collectivism and moral high ground of the woke agenda are in conflict with reality, and they offer no credible solutions to the world’s problems,” he said. .
The government moved to distance Argentina from trading partners led by leftist leaders such as Cuba and Venezuela. He was fired after Foreign Minister Diana Mondino voted at the United Nations to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba.
Milley threatened to pull Argentina out of the Paris climate accord in the run-up to his election victory last November.
The decision to withdraw the delegation from COP29 came just hours after Milley met with Trump. Milley’s spokesman said the U.S. president-elect told the Argentine president that he was his “favorite president.”
According to CNN, he is scheduled to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and meet with the president-elect.
Argentina is not the only country absent from COP29. Papua New Guinea ignored the negotiations in Baku, protesting the small island state’s “inaction”.
“As our people suffer from the devastating effects of climate change, we will no longer tolerate empty promises and inaction,” Justin Tkachenko, the country’s foreign minister, said ahead of the summit.
On Wednesday, French Environment Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher told the French Senate that she would not take part in talks on climate change after criticizing Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s “unacceptable” attacks on the country in a speech on Tuesday. said.
Aliyev accused France of “brutally” suppressing concerns about the climate crisis in its overseas territories.
“As a result of consultation and agreement with the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, I will not be going to Baku next week,” she said.
A French delegation is attending the summit.
