Peter Welch: “world leaders and other high-ranking officials from nearly 200 countries have been in Baku, Azerbaijan, this week in…”

“world leaders and other high-ranking officials from nearly 200 countries have been in Baku, Azerbaijan, this week in pursuit of an agreement on financing of future actions necessary to avert a global catastrophe caused by climate change. The outcome of these negotiations will signal whether the international community is finally getting serious about reducing carbon emissions to halt global warming--or still capable only of setting inadequate, voluntary goals, which they then fail to meet. It is sadly ironic that the 29th Conference of the Parties, otherwise known as COP29, is being held in an oil-rich country that has wholly failed to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement, and whose head of state, President Ilham Aliyev, has profited from his county's oil wealth. Aliyev has abused his authority, enriching himself and crushing any opposition to his authoritarian rule. In fact, Aliyev opened COP29 by praising fossil fuels as a ``gift from God'' and, in the run-up to the conference, penned several natural gas deals, boosting the fossil fuel industry in his country. It is also distressing that rather than invest in clean energy, President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to do everything he can to increase the production of fossil fuels here in the United States and has threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.…”