COP29: Big and small nations get chance to bear witness to climate change

When more than two dozen world leaders deliver remarks at the United Nations' annual climate conference on Wednesday, many have detailed their nations' firsthand experience with the catastrophic weather that has come with climate change.

"Over the past year, catastrophic floods in Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as well as in southern Croatia have shown the devastating impact of rising temperatures," said Croatia's prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic. "The Mediterranean, one of the most vulnerable regions, calls for urgent action."

Greek prime minister said Europe and the world needs to be "more honest" about the trade-offs needed to keep global temperatures down.

"We need to ask hard questions about a path that goes very fast, at the expense of our competitiveness, and a path that goes some much slower, but allows our industry to adapt and to thrive," he said. His nation this summer was hammered by successive heat waves after three years of below-average rainfall. In Greece, the misery included water shortages, dried-up lakes and the death of wild horses.

Other speakers on the list include Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose nation has seen deadly flooding this year from monsoon rains that scientists say have become heavier with climate change. Just two years ago, more than 1,700 people died in widespread flooding. Pakistan has also suffered from dangerous heat, with thousands of people hospitalized with heatstroke this spring as temperatures soared to 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit).

Also on the list of speakers Wednesday is Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Edward Davis. Like many other countries in the Global South, the Bahamas has piled up debt from warming-connected weather disasters it did little to cause, including Hurricanes Dorian in 2019 and Matthew in 2016. Leaders have been seeking help and money from the Global North and oil companies.

Early on Wednesday, ministers and officials from African nations called for initiatives to advance green development on the continent and strengthen resilience to extreme weather events — from floods to droughts — across the region.

Plenty of big names and powerful countries are noticeably absent from COP29 this year. That includes the 13 largest carbon dioxide-polluting countries — a group responsible for more than than 70% of the heat-trapping gases emitted last year — were missing. The world's biggest polluters and strongest economies — China and the United States — didn't send their No. 1s. Neither did India and Indonesia.

But U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was there, and he announced an 81% emissions reduction target on 1990 levels by 2035, in line with the Paris Agreement goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. That's up from the 78% the U.K. had already pledged.

The main focus of this year's talks is climate finance — wealthier nations compensating poor countries for damages from climate change's weather extremes, helping them pay to transition their economies away from fossil fuels and helping them with adaptation.