China, Japan, Australia and Mexico are also absent from the U.N.'s latest agenda for leaders' speeches at COP29. The EU will be represented at the summit by European Council President Charles Michel and the bloc's climate policy chief, Wopke Hoekstra.

With devastating climate disasters on the rise and record-high greenhouse gas emissions, the upcoming COP29 presents a crucial opportunity to accelerate global climate action. Scheduled to take place in Baku,

China has requested that countries hold talks at next week's COP29 U.N. climate summit on carbon border taxes and other "restrictive trade measures" that Beijing says are hurting developing countries,

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, US President Joe Biden and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be absent. Read more at straitstimes.com.