Argentina's climate skeptic president, a fervent admirer of Donald Trump, caused fears for the future of the 2015 Paris accord on global warming this week after pulling his country from a climate change conference underway in Azerbaijan.
The snub came a day before Milei met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort, the first foreign leader to visit the Republican since his reelection which Milei hailed as "the greatest political comeback in history."
Argentina's rejection of the talks sparked fears it could walk away from the landmark 2015 Paris deal on slashing emissions, as Trump did during his first presidential term.
Macron, a passionate defender of multilateralism, will attempt to convince Milei to continue to back "the international consensus" on global issues, including climate change, Macron's aides said.
The French centrist will have dinner with Milei after his arrival in Buenos Aires ahead of formal talks on Sunday.
The two will then travel separately to the G20 summit held on Monday and Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro.
"This will be a test for Macron and his political clout," Oscar Soria, a leading Argentine climate activist, told AFP.
"If he can't convince Milei to stay in the Paris Agreement, then that would show he's not having the same halo as he used to have in Latin America," Soria said, adding he feared a "chain" of withdrawals by South American countries from the Paris deal if Argentina walked away.
Macron tried but failed to use his persuasive powers to keep Trump in the Paris accord in 2017 and also clashed with Brazilian former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro over rampant deforestation in the Amazon during his 2019-2023 rule.
But since losing his relative majority in the French parliament in July elections his clout has been significantly diminished both at home and abroad.
He is one of the few foreign leaders to visit Milei since the Argentine's election last year on promise to slash public spending, which has earned him the admiration of both Trump and his billionaire consigliere Elon Musk.
- French resistance to trade deal -
Macron's advisors said he will also use the visit to explain France's dogged resistance to a trade pact between the European Union and four South American countries, including Brazil and Argentina.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is pushing to get the deal, which has been 25 years in the making, over the line by the end of the year, with or without France.
Farmers in France and a number of other European countries, however, fear the deal will see the EU flooded with cheaper agricultural goods, including Brazilian and Argentine beef.
After his visits to Argentina and the G20 Macron will visit Chile.
Is Argentina's Milei on brink of leaving Paris climate accord?
Buenos Aires (AFP) Nov 16, 2024 -
Argentina's abrupt snub of COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan has raised alarm that President Javier Milei -- an ally to US President-elect Donald Trump -- could be looking at pulling out of the Paris accord.
Such a move would align Milei's climate change skepticism with the position held by Trump -- and deal a blow to the 2015 international agreement that aims to curb global warming.
"If Milei's government decides to exit the Paris Agreement, we would be faced with huge legal and constitutional implications," said Maximiliano Ferraro, an Argentine lawmaker with the opposition Civic Coalition.
Already, Milei -- a populist who has taken radical measures to cut inflation at home -- has downgraded his environment ministry to a sub-secretariat and eliminated a fund for the protection of native forests.
Argentina's delegation expected at the COP29, the UN climate talks happening in Azerbaijan this week, suddenly pulled out, an environment ministry source confirmed, without giving details behind the decision.
Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein told The Washington Post that "we are reevaluating our strategy on all climate-change-related issues" but added that Buenos Aires had not made a decision at this time to leave the Paris accord.
On Thursday, Milei attended a gala at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, alongside the world's richest man Elon Musk. At the event, Milei hailed Trump's "greatest political comeback in history."
Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement in 2017, during his first time as president.
Current US President Joe Biden brought his country back into it in 2021, but Trump has vowed to reverse that order when he takes over the White House in January.
On Monday and Tuesday, Biden and Milei will attend a G20 summit in Brazil that will discuss international efforts to limit climate change, but the US leader is seen as a lame duck leader at the gathering.
- 'Bad signal' -
Greenpeace Argentina said the country's withdrawal from the Azerbaijan talks was a "bad signal."
Ferraro, the opposition lawmaker, said if an exit from the Paris Agreement followed, "we would be entering a foggy path of isolation."
Milei has a record of putting environmental considerations well below economic ones.
In June, he stated: "Nature must serve humans and their wellbeing, not the other way around."
He added that "the main environmental problem we have is extreme poverty, and that is only solved if we use our resources."
Oscar Soria, head of The Common Initiative, a New York-based group campaigning for financial reform to promote biodiversity, told AFP "there is a growing concern about the possibility that Argentina exits the Paris Agreement."
But he pointed out that such a move "cannot be done by a simple decree" -- it would require approval by the Argentine Congress.
Argentina ratified the Paris accord in 2016, meaning any change would enter constitutional territory.
It would also run counter to "solid legislation on climate action" in the country, Soria said.
"If he goes there, we are ready for a legal battle."
Soria added that "with or without Argentina, global climate action will continue. That was shown in the United States when Donald Trump took the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement in 2017. A lot of extreme-right leaders have underestimated the Paris Agreement."
Guillermo Folguera, a biologist at Argentina's National Scientific and Technical Research Council, said there was hope that NGOs could curb government policies that look at the environment "only as a way to generate assets and not as a space for life."
Ferraro suggested that Milei's moves could be a way to ingratiate himself with Trump.
"I wonder if it's just a show put on by President Milei to offer this up as a sacrificial ritual in his get-together with US President-elect Donald Trump?"
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