Earth's biggest polluters aren't sending leaders to UN climate talks in a year of weather extremes

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — World leaders converged Tuesday at the United Nations annual climate conference with plenty of big names and powerful countries noticeably absent.

Past talks often had the star power of a soccer World Cup. But the meeting just getting underway in Azerbaijan won't have the top leaders of the 13 largest carbon dioxide-polluting countries — a group responsible for more than 70% of the heat-trapping gases emitted last year.

“The people who are responsible for this are absent,” Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said during his speech at the summit. “There’s nothing to be proud about.”

The world's biggest polluters and strongest economies — China and the United States — aren't sending their No. 1s. Neither are India and Indonesia. That's the world's four most populous nations, with more than 42% of all the world's people.

“It’s symptomatic of the lack of political will to act. There’s no sense of urgency,” said climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics. He said this explains “the absolute mess we’re finding ourselves in.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders who did show up that the world is seeing “a master class in climate destruction" in a year virtually certain to be hottest on record.

But Guterres held out hope, saying in a veiled reference to Donald Trump's re-election in the United States that the “clean energy revolution is here. No group, no business, no government can stop it.”

UN officials said when Trump was first elected in 2016, the world had 180 gigawatts of clean energy and 700,000 electric vehicles. Now it's 600 gigawatts of clean energy and 14 million electric vehicles.

Host Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev kicked off two scheduled days of world leaders' speeches by lambasting Armenia, western news media, climate activists and critics of his country's rich oil and gas history and trade, calling them hypocritical since the United States is the world's biggest oil producer. He said it was “not fair” to call Azerbaijan a “petrostate” because it produces less than 1% of the world's oil and gas.

Oil and gas are “a gift of the God” just like the sun, wind and minerals, Aliyev said. “Countries should not be blamed for having them. And should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market because the market needs them.”

Rev. Fletcher Harper of GreenFaith, a faith-focused environmental activism group, responded by calling fossil fuels "literally the highway to hell for billions of people and the planet."

Aliyev said his country will push hard for a green transition away from fossil fuels, “but at the same time, we must be realistic.”

One of the most notable leaders to make the talks is U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 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.

U.K. greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by almost half from 1990 levels, mainly because of the almost complete removal of coal from electricity generation.

Many climate analysts welcomed the announcement. "It sets a strong bar for other countries," said Debbie Hillier, the global climate policy lead of Mercy Corps. Nick Mabey from the climate think-tank E3G said “other nations should follow suit with high-ambition targets.”

There’s also a strong showing from the leaders of some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. Several small island nations presidents and over a dozen leaders from countries across Africa are speaking at the two-day World Leaders’ Summit portion of the conference.

“Our forebears map the tides with sticks, coconut fronds and shells. It is in our blood to know when a tide is turning. And on climate, the tide is turning today,” said Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine. “Time will judge those that fail to make the transition.”

Spain Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez noted that the deadly floods in his country last month “would have been less likely and less intense without the effect of climate change.”

“We must ensure natural disasters do not multiply or replicate," he said. "Let’s do what we promised to do seven years ago in Paris.”

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said the world is in “a season of superlatives.” Barbados was hit with destructive Hurricane Beryl earlier this year.

“These extreme weather events that the world is facing daily suggest that humanity and the planet are hurtling towards catastrophe,” she said.

United Nations officials downplayed the lack of head of state star power, saying that every country is represented and active in the climate talks.

One logistical issue is that next week, the leaders of the most powerful countries have to be half a world away in Brazil for the G20 meetings. The recent election in the United States, Germany's government collapse, natural disasters and personal illnesses also have kept some leaders away.

The major 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.

“It’s not surprising that richer nations are trying to downplay the importance of this crucial finance COP," said Rachel Cleetus from the Union of Concerned Scientists. “They’re trying to evade their responsibility to pay up.”

Nations are negotiating over huge amounts of money, anywhere from $100 billion a year to $1.3 trillion a year. That money “is not charity, it's an investment,” Guterres said. “Developing countries must not leave Baku empty-handed."

Climate analysts welcomed an announcement by a group of 11 multilateral development banks including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank that their annual climate financing for the rest of the decade should reach $120 billion.

In the negotiations backroom, the G77 and China negotiating bloc — which includes many of the world’s developing countries — put forward a demand of $1.3 trillion annual climate finance for the first time. A representative said the bloc cannot accept the framework submitted for negotiations.

“We will not get a strong new goal in Baku if it is not shaped in a way that respects the G77 positions,” said Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of Moroccan climate think-tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development. “The G77 and China are setting the agenda.”

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed from London.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The logo for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit is visible through artwork outside the venue, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Spain President Pedro Sanchez speaks during a plenary session during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Antonio Guterres, United Nations secretary-general, speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Dancers perform at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan president, speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Antonio Guterres, United Nations secretary-general, speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Simon Stiell, United Nations climate chief, Antonio Guterres, United Nations secretary-general, Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan president, and Turkey President Recep Tayyip, in the center, pose with others for a group photo at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Simon Stiell, United Nations climate chief, Antonio Guterres, United Nations secretary-general, Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan president and Turkey President Recep Tayyip front center, pose with others for a group photo at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Yalchin Rafiyev, Azerbaijan's COP29 lead negotiator, speaks during a news conference at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A women demonstrates with a sign on veganism at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A flag for the United Nations and Azerbaijan are displayed outside the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A person walks outside the Baku Olympic Stadium, the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

NEW YORK (AP) — An arbitrator upheld five-year suspensions of the chief executives of Bad Bunny’s sports representation firm for making improper inducements to players and cut the ban of the company's only certified baseball agent to three years.

Ruth M. Moscovitch issued the ruling Oct. 30 in a case involving Noah Assad, Jonathan Miranda and William Arroyo of Rimas Sports. The decision became become public Tuesday when the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a petition to confirm the 80-page decision in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The union issued a notice of discipline on April 10 revoking Arroyo's agent certification and denying certification to Assad and Miranda, citing a $200,000 interest-free loan and a $19,500 gift. It barred them from reapplying for five years and prohibited certified agents from associating with any of the three or their affiliated companies. Assad, Miranda and Arroyo then appealed the decision, and Moscovitch was jointly appointed as the arbitrator on June 17.

Moscovitch said the union presented unchallenged evidence of “use of non-certified personnel to talk with and recruit players; use of uncertified staff to negotiate terms of players’ employment; giving things of value — concert tickets, gifts, money — to non-client players; providing loans, money, or other things of value to non-clients as inducements; providing or facilitating loans without seeking prior approval or reporting the loans.”

“I find MLBPA has met its burden to prove the alleged violations of regulations with substantial evidence on the record as a whole,” she wrote. “There can be no doubt that these are serious violations, both in the number of violations and the range of misconduct. As MLBPA executive director Anthony Clark testified, he has never seen so many violations of so many different regulations over a significant period of time.”

María de Lourdes Martínez, a spokeswoman for Rimas Sports, said she was checking to see whether the company had any comment on the decision. Arroyo did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.

Moscovitch held four in-person hearings from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7 and three on video from Oct. 10-16.

“While these kinds of gifts are standard in the entertainment business, under the MLBPA regulations, agents and agencies simply are not permitted to give them to non-clients,” she said.

Arroyo's clients included Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez and teammate Ronny Mauricio.

“While it is true, as MLBPA alleges, that Mr. Arroyo violated the rules by not supervising uncertified personnel as they recruited players, he was put in that position by his employers,” Moscovitch wrote. “The regulations hold him vicariously liable for the actions of uncertified personnel at the agency. The reality is that he was put in an impossible position: the regulations impose on him supervisory authority over all of the uncertified operatives at Rimas, but in reality, he was their underling, with no authority over anyone.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

FILE - Bad Bunny appears in the press room at the Oscars in Los Angeles on March 10, 2024. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)