The News
Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not attend next week’s COP29 climate conference, according to multiple reports, a decision seemingly made after the country’s governing coalition collapsed Wednesday.
Only two heads from the G7, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, are now expected to attend the Baku conference. The summit, touted as the “finance COP” for its focus on securing the funding needed to support developing countries’ energy transition away from fossil fuels, has been overshadowed by the re-election of Donald Trump to the US presidency. Climate advocates have for months suggested that this year’s meeting is unlikely to result in a substantial, global initiative to curb climate change, Semafor previously reported.
A vocal critic of renewable energy sources, Trump’s return has prompted climate activists and industry leaders to look to the European Union and other large economies for renewed leadership on climate, Bloomberg wrote. But European leaders are grappling with their own domestic tensions amid the transition to net zero.
SIGNALS
European politics could tilt rightward without adequate climate financing
Farmers in western Europe have increasingly embraced far-right political parties, The Guardian wrote. Struggling with inflation and steep energy prices, many farmers have felt aggrieved by government policies that force them to pay more to comply with climate regulations. Low-carbon economies must be “properly funded, planned and equitable and not done at the expense of working people,” activists warned. Otherwise, governments may risk pushing rural communities toward far-right populist parties like Germany’s AfD and France’s National Rally, both of which have successfully capitalized on redirecting rural communities’ anger over economic challenges toward immigrants and the European Union, the outlet wrote.
Green transition may be too fast for German auto industry
Germany’s once-vibrant automotive industry is “struggling to preserve its relevance in the age of electrification,” CNBC wrote, particularly amid sluggish demand in China, the world’s largest car market. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen have all issued profit warnings in recent weeks, with VW also considering shutting down several German plants. Berlin has called on the EU to relax CO2 emission standards and reconsider its ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2035. Speaking at a conference Wednesday, a Kremlin aide criticized Germany for hastening the auto sector’s decline by its “miscalculated ambitions” to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels, Reuters reported, adding that Russia instead pursues “gradual transition,” to avoid shocking industry and experiencing a similar fate to Germany.
Some climate diplomats remain optimistic about COP29 goals
At COP29, European and US climate envoys had planned to push for China and some Gulf states to start paying into UN climate funds, but meeting attendees expressed concern that Donald Trump’s reelection as US president could make that ambition harder to reach, Reuters reported. Securing more ambitious climate financing will be “almost impossible without the US buy-in,” a researcher at the Centre for European Reform told the outlet. That said, Trump’s reelection should not “stop the global push for clean energy,” one Latin American climate official said, adding that booming global investments in renewables are unlikely to stop.