Hopes have been high for this year’s COP29 conference, despite much murmuring over the choice of host city.

Next month’s event in Baku, Azerbaijan, has been billed by the UN and many others as the finance COP – the one that should see decarbonisation targets and roadmaps hardened by multi-lateral financial undertakings.

But that has now been thrown into doubt.

Multiple financial institutions have declared – well, confirmed when asked – their intention not to attend, or have not yet stated that they will.

And while that hedging of bets continues, the drive to get many of the organisations that will matter most to the net zero transition around the table to hammer out the details seems to have hit an impasse.

Who is going?

According to the Financial Times this week, leaders from Bank of America, BlackRock, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered are amongst those who won’t be on the plane to Baku.

Although the event has long been seen as the one where the promises of recent COPs will be made practical through the agreement of investment and financial measures required, some banks and institutions apparently see COP29 as a technical forum rather than a business one.

The event will also be staged just a few days after the US election, adding a further and significant ingredient of uncertainty.

This piece outlines why the prospect of Trump's return to the White House was already grinding some negotiations to a halt, particularly around reparation payments to developing nations.

“The summit has a much lower profile than the extravaganza in Dubai and it remains unclear how many world leaders will attend, with COP30 in Brazil next year considered of greater import,” it added.

From a UK perspective, King Charles has already indicated that he won’t be there.

What’s next?

Not all is doom and gloom though. The European Council this week underlined a $100 billion commitment to climate finance by the end of next year, stating that “The EU and its member states are the world’s largest contributor to international public climate finance, and since 2013 have more than doubled their contribution to climate finance to support developing countries.”

The next few weeks will show whether Baku has an opportunity to build on the pledges of recent COPs, or will be something of a ceremonial affair and prequel to next year’s summit in Brazil. But given the questions already raised about the wisdom of the host being the centre of a fossil fuel-based economy, the epitaph may already have been written.