France’s top climate official is skipping the COP29 climate negotiations in Azerbaijan after the host country’s president accused France of “brutally” suppressing climate change concerns in its overseas territories.
“After discussion and in agreement with the president of the republic and the prime minister, I will not go to Baku next week,” French Ecological Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher told the French Senate on Wednesday, denouncing the remarks as “unacceptable” and “unjustifiable.”
“Azerbaijan is instrumentalizing the fight against climate change for its undignified personal agenda,” Pannier-Runacher fumed.
The French climate minister’s withdrawal means Paris will not send any high-level political representative to Baku, as French President Emmanuel Macron will also skip the event.
The decision means that for the first time since the 2015 Paris Agreement — which France helped engineer and has since strongly defended — a COP will take place without senior French leadership.
The dispute also deepens a growing rift between France and Azerbaijan over Paris’ military support for Baku’s historic rival, Armenia.