WORLD leaders were accused today of lacking the will to act on the worsening climate emergency.

This came as government delegates continued to converge on the Azerbaijan capital Baku today for the 29th meeting of the United Nations Conference of the Parties climate summit (Cop29).

But the top leaders of the 13 largest carbon-polluting countries will not appear at the 12-day meeting with their countries responsible for more than 70 per cent of 2023’s heat-trapping gases.

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

Cop29 lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev told a press conference today that “unless all countries can slash emissions deeply, every country and household will be hammered harder than they currently are. We will be living in a nightmare.”

The leaders of some of the world’s most climate vulnerable nations, including over a dozen leaders from countries across Africa, are set to participate in the summit.

Meanwhile a Dutch appeals court today overturned a landmark ruling that ordered energy company Shell to cut its carbon emissions by net 45 per cent by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, while saying that “protection against dangerous climate change is a human right.”

The decision was a defeat for the Dutch arm of environmental group Friends of the Earth, which hailed the original 2021 ruling as a victory for the climate. 

Presiding Judge Carla Joustra said that Shell already has targets for climate-warming carbon emissions that are in line with demands of Friends of the Earth, both for what it directly produces and for emissions produced by energy the company purchases from others.

The court then ruled that “for Shell to reduce CO2 emissions caused by buyers of Shell products by a particular percentage would be ineffective in this case. Shell could meet that obligation by ceasing to trade in the fuels it purchases from third parties. Other companies would then take over that trade.”

“This hurts,” Netherlands Friends of the Earth director Donald Pols said.

“At the same time, we see that this case has ensured that major polluters are not immune and has further stimulated the debate about their responsibility in combating dangerous climate change. That is why we continue to tackle major polluters, such as Shell,” he said.

Shell chief executive officer Wael Sawan said: “We are pleased with the court’s decision, which we believe is the right one for the global energy transition, the Netherlands and our company.”