UN local weather talks are “no longer fit for purpose” and may solely be hosted by nations who’re attempting to surrender fossil fuels, veterans of the method have stated.
An open letter to the United Nations, signed by former UN chief Ban Ki-moon, makes an explosive intervention within the twenty ninth COP local weather summit, underneath manner in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Frustration over petrostate hosts – following final 12 months’s summit in UAE – in addition to the affect of fossil gas lobbyists, prohibitive prices, and gradual progress have been mounting in recent times.
The letter acknowledges the strides COPs have made on ramping up local weather insurance policies.
“But it is now clear that the COP is no longer fit for purpose,” the letter stated.
“Its current structure simply cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity.”
The letter’s 22 signatories additionally embody former Eire President Mary Robinson and Christiana Figueres, former head of the UN local weather physique (UNFCCC) that runs the annual COP summits.
It referred to as for the method to be streamlined and for nations to be held accountable for his or her guarantees.
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The letter additionally referred to as for “strict eligibility criteria” for host nations to exclude these “who do not support the phase out/transition away from fossil energy”.
This 12 months’s host nation, petrostate Azerbaijan, has been engulfed in controversy.
Its authoritarian president Ilham Aliyev used his opening tackle to criticise western hypocrisy and reward oil and gasoline as a “gift” from God. His criticism of France, with whom relations have lengthy been tense, drove the French minister to cancel a visit to the summit.
Whereas the federal government and its COP group run separate operations, host nations are speculated to clean over disagreements and discover consensus between the virtually 200 nations gathered.
COP presidencies are additionally nominating themselves to be local weather leaders and throwing their very own nations underneath the highlight.
Azerbaijan is a small growing nation that depends considerably on oil and gasoline revenues. But it surely has made gradual progress on constructing out clear energy – getting simply 1.5% of its vitality from clear sources – and led a harsh crackdown on critics within the run as much as the COP.
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“We have opened our doors to everybody,” he added.
Some diplomats right here have hinted that Azerbaijan’s presidency group imply effectively however may be slightly out of their depth. They’ve by no means been out in entrance at earlier COPs, however in addition they solely had a 12 months to arrange for his or her flip internet hosting the mighty summit.
“My sense of this is that they’re a little underprepared, a little overwhelmed and a little bit short,” stated one, talking anonymously, as is customary for diplomats attempting to take care of good relations.
“But I’m not sure that that’s politics. It might just be bandwidth and preparation and things like that.”
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Totally different areas on this planet take turns to host a COP. This 12 months it was as much as Japanese Europe, however the choice course of took longer than standard as a result of tensions over Russia’s struggle in Ukraine and between Azerbaijan and rival Armenia.
Achim Steiner of the UN Improvement Programme, referred to as it “troubling” that some nations face questions over their host roles.
“Are there countries that are by definition good hosts and others are bad hosts?” he requested.
“In the United Nations, we maintain the principle of every nation, first of all, should have a right to be heard.
“Labels are usually not all the time the fairest manner of describing a nation. A few of the largest oil producers have hosted this COP previously, and seemingly this appeared to be a superbly acceptable phenomenon.”
COP stands for “conference of the parties” and refers to nations (“parties”) who’ve signed the underlying local weather treaty.
Azerbaijan’s COP29 group and the UN’s local weather physique have been contacted with a request to remark.
