‘Trump effect’ undermines U.N. climate summit

OPINION:

The 2024 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, recently wrapped up. The summit can be summed up in one phrase: The orange man derailed it.

The election of former President Donald Trump a few days before the Conference of the Parties, known as COP29, began had a profound impact on zapping any potential success from the summit. The Times of London wrote that the “wind was taken out of [COP29’s] sails before it even started with the election of climate-skeptic Donald Trump in the U.S.”

The disillusionment of COP29’s attendees was palpable. No major Western leaders bothered to show up in Baku except the U.K.’s newly minted prime minister, Keir Starmer.

‘Total waste of time’

The supposedly sinking Pacific island nations could not even muster up enthusiasm for COP29 as the nation of Papua New Guinea boycotted the confab, declaring it a “total waste of time.”

France boycotted attending COP29. Politico reported, “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.” Oui oui!

Oil is a ‘gift of God’

It gets better. In what can be described only as the “Trump effect,” Argentina withdrew its negotiators from the summit after President Javier Milei held talks with Mr. Trump; Argentina’s entire team was ordered home.

“We have instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to no longer participate,” Argentina’s top environmental official told The Guardian.

There’s more.

The opening day of the U.N. climate summit featured Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, declaring oil a “gift of God” and said people need oil. As you can imagine, Mr. Aliyev’s invoking God to defend the use of oil enraged and demoralized the attendees of COP29.

The BBC reported on the oily mess, noting in a headline: “UN climate talks ‘no longer fit for purpose’ say key experts.”

U.N. officials turn on — the U.N.

The COP process needs “an urgent overhaul,” according to an open letter by the former U.N. secretary-general, the former U.N. climate chief and other U.N. supporters, the BBC reported. The erstwhile U.N. officials demanded that “countries should not host the talks if they don’t support the phase-out of fossil energy.”

Former Vice President Al Gore agreed, saying: “I think that there should be a test for who is qualified to be a delegate to these COPs. Are they coming to try to find a solution or are they coming in order to block a solution?”

In other words, censor and ban any nation from the U.N. climate process that dissents in any way from the U.N. agenda. They appear to want to run the U.N. climate summits like a “woke”  social media platform.

‘Worst U.N. climate summit’ ever!

COP29 was initially billed as the COP finance summit. The original $100 billion-a-year climate slush fund was pledged to increase to $300 billion a year. But no one seemed happy about these “pledges.”

The Times of London reported on the utter failure of the summit. “Cop29 was described by veteran negotiators as the worst UN climate summit they had experienced.”

And here’s one more scoop from CNN: “COP29 was described by climate activists as ‘an insult, a joke and a betrayal. … A conference of chaos.”

A fake dead whale

One final bizarre note: COP29 featured a dead fake whale made of what appeared to be petroleum-based products on display in downtown Baku. The fake whale carcass had a backdrop of COP29’s neon messaging on a building, complete with a windmill. Just to be clear, the climate activists who sponsored this fake dead whale stunt believed that climate change is a threat to whales — and windmills will somehow save the whales.

No irony is lost in the fact that since the rapid ascent of offshore wind, deaths of actual whales have skyrocketed.

As with every U.N. climate summit, many studies are timed to be released in the weeks and days before the conference to maximize the alleged importance of the U.N.’s mission. This year’s round of studies was quite humorous. A study in the journal Lancet claimed that “Climate change is causing sleep loss.”

Not to be outdone, a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environment, Development and Sustainability actually claimed that “climate change is encouraging unsanitary toilet practices among vulnerable communities.” How? “Climate change makes toilets more likely to break, which leaves people more likely to ‘go’ outside.’”

Remember: Don’t ever question “the science”!

Meat tax for thee

The conference featured prominent speeches calling for meat rationing and a global “meat tax” to limit “cow emissions.” Willem Branten of the group True Animal Protein Price Coalition called for meat taxes “so that we can pay for the damages done by our past consumption of meat and animal proteins.”

The U.N. was full of meat hypocrisy as delegates chowed down on beef, chicken and hot dogs at the restaurants and food courts of COP29.

As Mr. Trump prepares to return to the White House, we must remember: The failure of a U.N. climate summit is great news for humanity!

• Marc Morano manages the award-winning ClimateDepot.com news and information service. He served as a reporter for Rush Limbaugh’s television show and as a senior adviser to Sen. James Inhofe.