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The heads of Bank of America, BlackRock, Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank are expected to skip this year’s UN COP29 summit as corporate expectations for the world’s most important climate change negotiations decline. He is one of the most prominent financiers in the world.
The two-week summit to be held in Baku in November, dubbed the “Fiscal COP” by organizers, will see around 200 countries discuss new global fiscal goals to support developing countries suffering from the effects of climate change. It’s planned.
But many major banking, asset management and insurance executives are expected to be absent from the event, which will be held just five days after the US presidential election, leaving uncertainty over the leadership of the world’s largest economy. Donald Trump has threatened to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement if he becomes president, as he did in 2016.
Finance executives also noted “logistical challenges” and fewer customer networking opportunities compared to last year’s COP28 in Dubai.
One finance executive said he was still considering whether to attend, but “I will only go to the party if everyone attends.”
Others argued that this year was a “technical COP” that was not well suited for business, and expressed their intention to attend COP30 in Brazil next year instead.
Banking, asset management and insurance executives have increased their attendance at COP28 in Dubai, making it the largest COP to date with 65,000 key participants.
Conversely, the event was criticized by some negotiators as too large, with an unprecedented number of observers and guests, including business executives, joining national delegations for the first time.
Baku COP29 organizers said in a recent press conference that they expect the total number of attendees to be the average of the previous three summits held in Glasgow, Sharm el-Sheikh and Dubai. They estimated the number of spectators at 50,000, but the breakdown was not disclosed and included staff.
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BlackRock’s Larry Fink, who attended the Glasgow and Dubai summits but was absent from COP27 in Egypt, is not expected to attend COP29, and Standard Chartered president Bill Winters will also not attend. That’s the outlook, said people familiar with their plans.
ING CEO Stephen van Rijswijk, Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan and Deutsche Bank’s Christian Sewing are also not expected to come to Baku, the people said. HSBC said it was still deciding on its delegation.
Neither the chief executive nor the chairman of Lloyds of London, an insurance institution essential to the green transition by providing risk cover for both oil and gas and clean energy development, will be attending. John Neal, the company’s chief executive officer, has been a prominent participant at previous summits.
Others said they were keeping an eye on various climate-related events, such as the COP16 United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Colombia later this month, and attended New York Climate Week in September.
Several financial institutions said their chief sustainability officers and other executives would attend COP29 instead.
At the same time, academics, nonprofits and other groups have complained of difficulty obtaining passes for this year’s event as UN organizers work to control crowds.
UN climate chief Simon Stiehl said in response to what some have branded the COP as a circus that distracts from the task of negotiating a global response to climate change. “I would love to see future COPs shrink in size.”
Azerbaijan’s hosting of the annual gathering has been the subject of scrutiny since it was chosen last year in a rotation of Eastern European countries.
The petrostate, which relies heavily on oil and gas exports, has drawn criticism for not focusing on the transition away from fossil fuels and human rights record it promised in Dubai.
The COP29 Presidency said it “looks forward to welcoming the delegation to Baku in November” and, after months of intensive planning, “is confident that the logistics, security, accommodation and transportation of the venue will be in good shape.” We will lead the meeting to success by having the following.”
“International companies have shown significant interest in Green Zone activities and we look forward to intensive and high-quality engagement around the opportunities established through the COP29 daily themes,” it added.
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