Gov. Inslee in Azerbaijan for global climate talks

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is spending the week in Azerbaijan, an oil-producing nation between Russia and Iran, for the latest round of the United Nations’ global climate talks.

Each year, world leaders try to hash out plans to reduce fossil-fuel pollution and help poorer nations survive the planet’s overheating.

Agreements don’t come easily.

At the 2024 summit, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev called fossil fuels “a gift of the God.”

At a protest in the neighboring nation of Georgia, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said holding a global climate summit “in an authoritarian petro-state is beyond absurd.”

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European Union scientists say 2024 is “virtually certain” to be the hottest year on record.

Since the first global climate talks in 1992, the world’s carbon dioxide emissions have grown 47%, according to the nonprofit Global Carbon Project.

Since Inslee became governor in January 2013, Washington’s greenhouse gas emissions have increased at least 11%, though the state’s published data only covers emissions up to 2019.

Inslee first attended the climate talks as governor in 2017 in Germany, after a newly elected President Trump announced he would withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris climate agreement. This week marks Inslee’s fourth appearance at these annual summits.

Inslee has argued that “subnational” governments, such as cities and states, can tackle emissions faster than nations and helped found an alliance of U.S. governors aiming to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.

Inslee’s office says two nonprofit groups, the Climate Registry and the Climate Action Reserve, are helping pay the governor’s travel expenses to Azerbaijan.

No one was available to provide details on taxpayers’ share of trip expenses when KUOW requested that information at roughly 3 p.m. Seattle time, 3 a.m. Azerbaijan time.

Inslee is scheduled to return to Washington on Saturday.