The upcoming United Nations climate summit will only be held in countries that have demonstrated clear support for climate action and have stricter rules against fossil fuel lobbying, according to an influential group of climate policy experts. He says he should.
The group includes former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former Irish President Mary Robinson, former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres, and renowned climate scientist Johan Rockström. There is.
They have written to the United Nations to streamline the current complex process of the annual “Conference of the Parties” under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the parent treaty of the Paris Agreement, and give them more say in the process. They requested that it be held more frequently. developing countries.
“It is clear that police officers are no longer fit for purpose. A shift from negotiation to implementation is needed,” they wrote.
This year's talks, known as COP29, are nearing the halfway point in Azerbaijan's capital Baku.
Azerbaijan is a controversial venue for the conference because it is a major producer of fossil fuels, with oil and gas accounting for half of its exports. Last year's conference was also held in the oil nation of the United Arab Emirates, where its president, Sultan Al Jaber, continued his day job as head of the country's state oil company Adnoc.
Before the start of COP29, one of the key members of the Azerbaijani government's organizing team was filmed offering to help conclude a fossil fuel deal. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev also spoke at the opening ceremony, calling the country's oil and gas a “gift of God.”
“Strong eligibility criteria are needed to exclude countries that do not support the phase-out/transition of fossil energy. Host countries must demonstrate high levels of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris Agreement,” the group said. is writing.
Figueres said: “In the last Cup, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered representatives of scientific institutions, indigenous communities and vulnerable countries. Without significant reforms, we cannot hope to achieve a just transition.”
At least 1,773 coal, oil and gas lobbyists have been granted access to Cop29, according to data analyzed by the Get Out the Big Polluters activist coalition. This is more than all but three countries (Azerbaijan, Brazil and Turkey) and significantly more than the 10 most vulnerable countries to the climate crisis (1,033 delegates in total).
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore also took aim at fossil fuel influence, particularly from Azerbaijan, at the conference.
“There's an old country song from Nashville called 'Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places,'” Gore said. “For a long time, a lot of people bought into that line, which was sparked by the fossil fuel industry. [the climate crisis] They will solve it for us. But they won't solve it for us. The international community needs to organize much more effective ways to carry out these police [than to host them in petrostates]. The UN Secretary-General should have a role in deciding who will be the host. ”
The focus of COP29 is how to provide enough cash to help poor countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of extreme weather events caused by climate change.
To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, poor countries will need about $1 trillion a year by 2030. Nearly a third of that money should come from developed countries, either through development banks such as the World Bank or through direct financing, with most of the rest coming from the private sector, according to a report by leading economists.
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But how much money developed countries are willing to provide, and on what terms, or which other countries, including petrostates and major emerging economies such as China, should be asked to provide such funding. , there is still little agreement from developed countries.
Activists who occupied the area outside Baku's Olympic Stadium, the venue for the Kop, were left in no doubt as to who should provide the funding. “Make polluters pay,” read a giant banner unfurled during the meeting as campaigners shouted slogans.
Core talks on a new climate finance settlement, called “new collective quantitative targets”, progressed slowly on Thursday with a new draft bill called “unworkable” by some countries. Negotiations are expected to continue throughout next week and conclude next Friday night.
Outside the negotiating table, some countries are looking for new sources of financing to bridge the gap. A new “global solidarity tax” could raise billions for much-needed climate finance for the poorer world, according to a report by a special committee led by Laurence Tubiana, a former French diplomat and current director of the European Climate Foundation. It turns out it's possible.
Imposing fees on cryptocurrencies that require a lot of energy to create could be an option, the report said. Charging for just $0.045 per kWh can generate $5 billion in electricity.
A plastic production tax, imposed when plastics are produced from polymers rather than recycled materials, could generate between $25 billion and $35 billion a year if set at $60 to $90 per tonne. Even more effective is Brazil's proposed 2% wealth tax, which could generate between $200 billion and $250 billion a year.
Depending on the system's design, a tax on frequent travelers and business class tickets could generate up to $164 billion a year.
Mr Tubiana said: “One of the foundational pillars of the Paris Agreement is financial solidarity between developed and developing countries. Such solidarity will ensure that all countries meet the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. But there can be no climate justice without fiscal justice, because all countries face the same challenges. We now face the challenge of how to finance the transition while ensuring that the countries with the highest emissions pay their fair share.”
She is expected to submit the final report of the task force, led by the governments of France, Barbados and Kenya, by next year's police conference.
