The once ever-accelerating corporate roadshow at the annual United Nations climate talks is finally slowing down — at least for this year.
Businesses of all stripes are planning to either skip or send smaller delegations to this year’s global COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, wary of the event’s location and logistics, the oil-evangelizing autocratic regime running it and, perhaps most notably, the prospect of Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election just days before the November summit begins.
The expected lighter attendance is an about-face for the industry figures that swarmed last year’s climate talks in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where companies clamored for coveted access to the summit’s “Blue Zone,” the site of the official negotiations, and splashed out for lavish parties, dinners and hotels.
Some reasons for the pullback are prosaic: There are concerns about getting hotel rooms or even accessing the venue on the outskirts of Baku, the host city. Others are policy-focused: COP29 is expected to be more low-key than Dubai or next year’s talks in Brazil, and companies are already preparing for that event, where nations will finalize climate strategies through 2035.
