1 week Ago By Soumya Pillai
New Delhi: Argentinian negotiators were ordered to withdraw from the 29th Conference of Parties or COP29 negotiations at Baku, Azerbaijan on Wednesday. This disengagement by the South American nation under the climate change-denialist president Javier Milei has now raised concerns over the stability of the 2015 Paris Accords, which are already on shaky grounds after the re-election of Donald Trump as the US President. Argentina has over 80 representatives at the climate summit in Baku.
Argentina’s undersecretary for environment, Ana Lamas, the senior most representative from the department, confirmed to Climatica—a local climate and environment publication—on Wednesday that the delegation has been directed to leave Baku. “It is true. We have instructions from the ministry of foreign affairs to no longer participate.
That’s all I can tell you,” The Guardian quoted Lamas. Lamas confirmed that the decision only applied to COP and not the Paris Agreement. Despite the reassurance, experts were concerned that Argentina’s exit from the climate summit was indicative of the uncertain future of the Paris Agreement, which was already hanging by a thread after the re-election of Donald Trump as the US president last week.
Doubts were even more palpable because of the Argentinian government’s climate change-denial stance under its president, Javier Milei. Since taking charge last year, Milei has often made controversial statements, including calling climate change a “socialist lie”. In his speech at the UN General Assembly in September, Milei also criticised the 2030 sustainable development agenda as “a supranational programme of a socialist nature.
” Several Argentine media outlets including Buenos Aires Herald and Buenos Aires Times reported that it was Milei who ordered the delegation to withdraw from the climate summit. Incidentally, Milei had a telephone conversation with Trump on Tuesday. “Donald Trump said to President Milei: ‘You are my favourite president.
The end,’” Milei’s spokesperson Manuel Adorni posted on social media site ‘X’. Environment experts said that even though there was no official confirmation of Argentina exiting the Paris Accord yet, its withdrawal from the climate talks in Baku will have larger implications. Argentinian-origin expert Anabella Rosemberg, a senior advisor at the Climate Action Network International, said in a statement Wednesday that it was difficult to understand how a climate-vulnerable country like Argentina would cut itself from critical support being negotiated here at COP29.
“The Argentina government has withdrawn from the COP29 negotiations, not the treaty. So, it is largely symbolic, and all it does is remove the country from critical conversations going on climate finance,” Rosemberg said. COP29 has already begun on an uncertain note after Trump was re-elected as the president of the US.
His track record during his first stint at the White House does not inspire much confidence. In 2020, the US, under Trump, withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Calling the agreement unfair, he had said the document allowed countries like India and China to continue using fossil fuels while imposing heavy restrictions on the US.
While this decision was reversed when Joe Biden took over, Trump warned that if elected, he would withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. (Edited by Tony Rai) Also Read: No star power at COP29. Heads of key countries plan to sit out climate summit var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.
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