Argentina pulls delegates from climate summit as Milei heads for Mar-a-Lago

BAKU — Argentine delegates at the COP29 United Nations climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, have been ordered to withdraw from negotiations and return home, according to a source at the country’s foreign ministry.

The delegates took part in the first two days of the summit, which began on Monday, but were ordered to withdraw Wednesday by the ministry, the source told CNN en Español.

A group of delegates who were scheduled to travel to Baku on Wednesday were also ordered not to travel, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak on the record about the matter.

The move compounds a sense of anxiety that has been hanging over the talks since Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election last week. Trump has vowed to once again pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, which binds most of the world to try and keep global warming – caused primarily by humans burning fossil fuels – below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

As the Biden administration winds down, it is racing to send climate and environment funds to states and buttoning up last-minute regulations aimed at protecting the planet, one of its top climate officials said Monday.

“We still have plenty of work to do, and we have around 72 days, I think, to get it done,” said John Podesta, a senior White House adviser on clean energy who is also leading the US delegation at the UN climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei has assumed anti-climate positions in the past. During the UN General Assembly in September, he accused the global body of trying to “impose an ideological agenda” and sought to distance Argentina from the UN-sponsored 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

“We are at the end of a cycle. The collectivism and moral high ground from the woke agenda have crashed with reality, and they don’t offer credible solutions for the world’s problem,” Milei said from the UN podium.

During his presidential campaign, Milei said that policies linking climate change to human actions were false, and accused climate scientists of being “lazy socialists.”

Milei, who is unabashedly pro-US, has also taken a cooler stance towards leftist trade partners in the region and overseas, including by taking steps to distance Argentina from Cuba and Venezuela. Last month, he fired Diana Mondino, who was the country’s foreign affairs minister, after she voted in favor of lifting the US embargo against Cuba at the United Nations.

He is expected to travel to the United States this week to attend a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) summit at Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

A source told CNNE last week that Milei plans on meeting US President-elect Donald Trump, and that he also aims to attend Trump’s inauguration in January 2025. CNNE contacted Trump’s election campaign to confirm the invitations but has yet to hear back.

Milei came to power less than a year ago, running on a libertarian platform, and has since implemented drastic social and economic measures in Argentina.

In April, he announced a budget freeze for public universities, a move that sparked a massive nationwide protest. Other cuts to public services have so far included shutting down the Argentina national press agency Télam and several ministries. He has also reduced aid to soup kitchens in the poorest suburbs of Buenos Aires.

His government also halted the purchase of essential supplies for abortion access and banned gender-inclusive language in official documents.

Abortions were legalized in Argentina in 2021 in all cases up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. According to the legislation, a person who wants an abortion has the right to do so safely and free of charge. However, exercising that right has become increasingly difficult in the country this past year, according to human rights groups. — CNN