World leaders are gathering Tuesday for the United Nations' annual climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, though this year's COP29 is missing the big-name presence seen in past climate summits that often rivaled the fanfare of a World Cup.

Instead, the 2024 talks resemble a chess championship – less star power, more strategic focus. Notably, the leaders of the 13 largest carbon dioxide-emitting countries, whose nations account for more than 70% of 2023's greenhouse gases, will be absent.

"The people who are responsible for this are absent," Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said during his speech at the summit. "How effective are our actions at this meeting, when the president of France, the country responsible for the Paris Agreement, is not even here? There's nothing to be proud of."

France isn't the only one. The world's biggest polluters and strongest economies – China and the United States – aren't sending their top leaders. India and Indonesia's heads of state are also not in attendance, meaning the four most populous nations, with more than 42% of the world's population, won't have leaders present.

"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."

The world has witnessed the hottest day, months, and year on record "and a master class in climate destruction," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the world leaders who did show up.

But Guterres held out hope, saying, in a veiled reference to former President 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."

United Nations officials said that in 2016, when Trump was first elected, there were 180 gigawatts of clean energy and 700,000 electric vehicles globally. Now there are 600 gigawatts of clean energy and 14 million electric vehicles.

Host Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev opened two days of world leaders' speeches by lambasting Armenia, Western news media, climate activists, and critics who highlighted his country's oil and gas history and trade, calling them hypocritical since the United States is the world's biggest oil producer . He argued 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 from 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."

The Rev. Fletcher Harper of GreenFaith, in a statement, criticizing Aliyev's religious reference, calling fossil fuels "literally the highway to hell for billions of people and the planet."

As the host and president of the climate talks, COP29, Aliyev said his country would push for a green transition away from fossil fuels, "but at the same time, we must be realistic."

One of the most notable leaders in attendance is UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He announced an 81% emissions reduction target based on 1990 levels by 2035, in line with the Paris Agreement's goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

Many climate analysts welcomed the announcement. "It sets a strong bar for other countries," said Debbie Hillier, 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."

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

"Our forebears mapped 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."

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

One logistical issue is that next week, the leaders of the most powerful countries need 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 have also kept some leaders away.

The major focus of the negotiations is climate finance, with wealthy nations aiming to help poorer countries transition their economies away from fossil fuels, cope with climate change's impacts, and compensate for damages from extreme weather.

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

Nations are negotiating substantial sums, 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."

In the negotiation backrooms, the G77 and China – a bloc representing many of the world's developing countries – put forward a unified demand of $1.3 trillion in annual climate finance for the first time. The bloc's representative said the proposed framework cannot be accepted without revisions.

"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 the Moroccan climate think tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development. "The G77 and China are setting the agenda."