Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
16-11-2024
BAKU: The United Nations’ COP climate talks are “no longer fit for purpose” and need an urgent overhaul, key experts including a former UN secretary general and former UN climate chief have said.
In a letter to the UN, senior figures say countries should not host the talks if they don’t support the phase out of fossil energy.
This week the Azerbaijani 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 media 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 to take action.
The Paris climate agreement, signed in 2015, outlines a long-term plan to rein in rising temperatures, as countries strive to keep that rise under 1.5C this century.
They have also agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, and to treble renewable power by 2030 but while the authors of this letter recognize these achievements, they feel that the slow-moving COP process is “no longer fit for purpose” in dealing with 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 Figures and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson.
The authors are concerned that the current COP process is not able to make change happen quickly or able to force countries to act.
At last year’s COP28 meeting in Dubai all countries agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems” but 12 months later emissions of warming gases have increased once again, up by almost 1%.
Scientists say these emissions need to fall by 42% by the end of this decade to avoid a global temperature rise in excess of 1.5C, considered the threshold to far more dangerous impacts than we are seeing at present.
“Planet Earth is in critical condition,” said leading climate scientist Johan Rockstrom, another signatory.
“Thirty years of negotiations have made very significant results,” he told tmedia.
“It’s not questioning the COP process, on the contrary, we need it more than ever but we need to move into action mode,” Prof Rockstrom said.
The UN has yet to comment on the letter.
At the conference in Baku, negotiators from small island states were particularly concerned about any attempt to change the nature of the COP, where all countries are equal.
They worry that if decisions are made among the big emitters at forums such as the G20 group of richer nations, their small island voice will be excluded.
“We’re not a part of those discussions,” said Micahi Robertson who’s an adviser to the Alliance of Small Island States at these talks.
The letter has been prompted by growing concerns about some of the countries chosen to host COP talks and their ability to deliver a significant advance in the fight against rising temperatures.
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 oil and Gas Company with a man posing as a potential investor. (Int’l News Desk)
