United Nations climate talks were hit by a double blow after a French minister cancelled her visit and Argentina withdrew its delegation.
It came as the Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan was already suffering from low attendance by major world leaders.
French president Emmanuel Macron was among those who declined to attend the talks. But now the French Environment minister has cancelled her visit after the Azerbaijani President accused France of colonial ‘crimes’ and ‘human rights violations’ in French overseas territories.
Among his criticisms, Ilham Aliev highlighted 193 nuclear tests in French Polynesia ‘responsible for severe soil and water contamination’, 19 nuclear tests in Algeria, and claimed that the French police killed led ‘numerous citizens’ during recent protests in New Caledonia.
France’s Environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said she would not travel to the summit and added the insults were ‘unacceptable…and beneath the dignity of the presidency of the COP.’
It was also a ‘flagrant violation of the code of conduct’ for running United Nations climate talks, she added.
Attempting to calm the waters on Thursday, Cop29 lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev insisted that Azerbaijan had fostered ‘an inclusive process’ and that France’s minister would still be welcome to come, saying: ‘Our doors are still open.’
President Aliev has also stirred controversy by calling oil and gas ‘a gift from God’ which his country fully intended to use. Scientists warn that reducing the use of fossil fuel emissions is vital to stop catastrophic global warming.
France’s Environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said she would not travel to the summit
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev makes a speech during the 29th UN Climate Change Conference
Now the French Environment minister has cancelled her visit after the Azerbaijani President accused France of colonial ‘crimes’
In a further blow to the summit, the new president in Argentina abruptly pulled out Argentina’s delegation from the talks.
While Argentina’s delegation was small, its departure ‘is unprecedented in the country’s diplomatic history’, said Oscar Soria, an Argentine environmental activist and director of the Common Initiative.
Argentina’s anti-establishment President Javier Milei has made no secret of his scepticism of climate change and is an ally of newly reelected former US president Donald Trump.
The withdrawal prompted speculation that Argentina might also withdraw from the Paris Agreement, which commits signatories to limit global warming to 1.5c.
Rafiyev declined to be drawn on the departure, terming it a ‘diplomatic matter between Argentina and the UN’.