Coal is beginning to lose its luster in many countries, but not in the Asia-Pacific region. India, for instance, is eager to unearth the coal it has under the ground, and its government is seeking to privatize the coal-mining sector, including by inviting foreign bids for the first time, Reuters reported.

Worldwide, the global coal plant pipeline has shrunk by half over the last three years, but there are lots of new coal-fired power plants still in the planning stages — and if they go forward, emissions would rise sharply, a report issued last week by the German advocacy group Urgewald found.

The United Nations said it chose which countries to highlight at the summit based on one-page briefs they submitted about what new “positive steps” they were taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help the world’s most vulnerable cope with the impact of climate change. All that submitted credible plans were told they would have a few minutes at the podium.

United Nations officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly said a few countries did not get podium time because their proposals did not represent new, concrete steps or because they were not prepared to send their presidents or prime ministers. Mr. Guterres said no country was “turned down.”

“We are not in a position to say, ‘You’re bad, you’re good,’” Mr. Guterres said. “This is not a name-and-shame exercise.”

Notably absent from the Monday summit will be other champions of coal: Australia, which recently authorized the opening of a vast new coal basin, and Japan, which continues to fund coal projects around the world. Also absent will be the United States, where President Trump has championed coal but where it is fast diminishing as a source of energy because of the boom in natural gas.

Still, offering the podium to many of these champions of coal directly contradicts one of the summit’s stated themes, presented in the draft agenda under the title “Powering the Future From Coal to Clean.” The presidents of Slovakia and Korea are scheduled to speak at that session.