Picture: ANDREW KACIMAIWAI
The United Nations COP climate talks are “no longer fit for purpose” and in need of urgent overhaul, international experts say.
In a letter to the UN and reported on by the BBC, senior figures say that countries should not host the talks if they don’t support the phase out of fossil energy.
This week the Azerbaijan’s president told world leaders gathered in his country for COP29 that natural gas was a “gift from God” and he shouldn’t be blamed for bringing it to market.
That came days after the BBC reported that a senior Azerbaijani official appeared to have used his role at COP to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals.
The UN’s climate talks have made significant progress in recent years despite the fact that unanimous agreement is needed among almost 200 countries for action such as with the Paris climate agreement, signed in 2015.
The authors of the letter say the slow-moving COP process is “no longer fit for purpose” in the face of a fast-moving climate crisis.
“Its current structure simply cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity,” said its signatories; they include former UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and former Ireland president Mary Robinson.
This year will likely be the warmest on record, with emissions of planet warming gases still rising, while the impacts of warming often outpace the ability of countries to cope.
“Planet Earth is in critical condition,” said leading climate scientist Johan Rockstrom, another signatory.
“There is still a window of opportunity for a safe landing for humanity, but this requires a global climate policy process that can deliver change at exponential speed and scale,” he wrote.
The letter was prompted by growing concerns about some of the countries chosen to host COP talks.
Just before the latest conference started, a secret recording showed the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing “investment opportunities” in the state-owned oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.
At the start of COP29, the country’s authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev, defended Azerbaijan’s current exports of gas and plans to expand production by a third in the next decade.
“It’s a gift of God,” he told an audience in Baku.
The use of oil and gas are major causes of global warming, as they release planet-warming gases like carbon dioxide when they are burned.
The authors of the letter are also concerned by the selection process for hosting COPs. Azerbaijan followed on from another major oil producer, the United Arab Emirates, which held the conference in Dubai last year.
“At the last COP, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered representatives of scientific institutions, Indigenous communities and vulnerable nations,” said former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres.
The letter’s authors also want smaller, more frequent COPs talks.
