Top Financial Leaders to Skip COP29, Casting Doubt on “Finance COP” Expectations

Prominent financiers, including top executives from major banks, asset management firms, and insurance companies, have signaled their lack of interest in attending the UN COP29 conference in November in Baku, Azerbaijan, according to the Financial Times. This has lowered expectations for the much anticipated annual conference where world leaders negotiate on the climate crisis.

This is a major setback for this year’s two-week climate negotiations which was dubbed by organisers as “the Finance COP”, where almost 200 countries are expected to resolve on a new global financial target to support developing countries suffering the effects of climate change.

Also casting a shadow over this years conference is the timing of the U.S. presidential election, which takes place just five days before the conference kicks off. Republican candidate Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized climate talks, previously threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement if elected.

Notably among those expected to be absent from this years conference are the heads of several leading financial institutions, including Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, ING’s Steven van Rijswijk, Standard Chartered’s Bill Winters, and Deutsche Bank’s Christian Sewing. HSBC is reported to be undecided.

Also expected to be missing in action are the Chief Executive and Chair at Llyod’s of London. Lloyd’s plays a crucial role in providing insurance for both fossil fuel and clean energy projects. Its Chief Executive, John Neal was a prominent participant in previous COPs.

Some finance chiefs cited reasons such as difficulty in logistics and fewer client networking opportunities. Others said that they were focused on other climate-related events such as the COP16 UN Biodiversity Conference in Colombia taking place in Cali, Colombia later this month, or that they had attended the New York Climate Week in September. Several others have also expressed interest in attending next year’s COP30 holding in Brazil instead.

As one undecided finance chief put it, “You only go to the party if everyone is going.”

This highlights a major fear that the outcome from COP29 in Azerbaijan may not have a major impact, especially compared to last year’s COP28 in Dubai, regarded as the largest COP, which drew around 65,000 participants but faced criticism for being too large and defeating the objective, with an estimated 65,000 core attendees.

UN climate change Chief, Simon Stiel has said he “would certainly like to see future COPs reduce in size.

Azerbaijan, the host of COP29, has capped the expected attendance at 50,000 participants. Meanwhile, academics and nonprofit organizations have expressed frustration over difficulties in securing passes for the event, as organizers work to control crowd sizes.

COP29 host, Azerbaijan in a recent briefing pegged the expected total attendance at an estimated 50,000.

Meanwhile, academics, non-profit and other organisations have expressed frustration over difficulties in securing passes for this year’s event, as UN and organisers try to reign in the crowd.

The COP29 presidency remains positive, as it said that it expects intensive and high quality engagement around opportunities established through COP29 daily themes, adding that, “International businesses have expressed significant interest in the Green Zone activities.”