All posts by Rachitaa Gupta

COP29, Press Releases, Statements

Climate justice groups condemn COP29’s carbon markets decision setting the tone for corporate profits to prevail people’s interests


PRESS RELEASE

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN, 11 NOV 24 – As the global community gathers for the start of COP29, climate justice groups deplore the gaveling through of harmful carbon markets on the first day of the conference. This is not only an undemocratic process that threatens the credibility of this conference, it sets the tone for this COP to put Big Polluters’ profits above people’s rights.

The failure of voluntary carbon markets have shown that carbon markets, offsets, and removals do not work. Instead, they provide a smokescreen for big polluters to keep on emitting at the expense of people and nature. Time and again, these neocolonial schemes have resulted in land grabs, Indigenous Peoples rights and human rights violations, and the undermining of food sovereignty. 

Fully operationalizing carbon markets on the first day of COP29 sends an appalling message to the world for a COP that is set to see the delivery of urgently needed climate finance: Big Polluters and Global North governments may celebrate this as a success, and many will argue that carbon markets can provide the finance needed for a just energy transition, adaptation, and loss and damage in the global South. 

But carbon markets only fill the pockets of Big Polluters, they cannot – and will not – deliver the climate finance needed and owed to developing countries. The gavelling through of this decision on the first day of COP29 sets a dangerous precedent. The documents from the Supervisory Body must go through the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) for all parties to negotiate on. The rushing through of this decision is undemocratic and undermines the whole process.

Real, proven, community-centered and cost-effective solutions to justly address the climate crisis are increasingly being swept aside in favor of these industry-basked, risky, expensive, and harm-inducing false solutions. Climate justice begins with ending financing for and promotion of false solutions, instead, this COP must deliver the urgently needed climate finance owed to the global South. Bulldozing through Article 6.4 on the first day of the COP without any discussions and opportunity to negotiate by the Parties undermines the CMA, the COP and subverts the entire UNFCCC COP process. 

“Bulldozing through the Carbon Market methodology and text on the first day of the COP without any discussions and opportunity to negotiate by the Parties undermines the CMA, the COP and subverts the entire UNFCCC COP process. The arrival of the carbon market through the backdoor is a bad beginning for this COP, the global south, the Indigenous Peoples, forest and the front line communities. A global mobilization against the carbon markets is the need of the hour now.”

Souparna Lahiri, Senior Climate and Biodiversity Policy Advisor, Global Forest Coalition

“Carbon markets put Indigenous Peoples’ lives at risk. For over 20 years, these fraudulent mechanisms have allowed fossil fuel industries to continue with impunity. At this COP 29, the corporate capture has superseded any semblance of UN democracy with a move from the COP Presidency to go rogue and push through Article 6 carbon market methodology and removals texts without following party-driven procedure. IEN strongly opposes geoengineering technologies in the activities on removals text, which still has not produced a list of what removals technologies will even be included in A6.4 as an offset. We will continue to voice our opposition against Article 6 carbon markets.

Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. 

“The gavelling through of carbon markets on the first day of COP29 is unacceptable and undermines the credibility of the whole process. Further, it is opening the floodgates for a global carbon market that will have devastating impacts on communities in the Global South, on Indigenous Peoples, and on small peasant farmers first and foremost. Carbon markets are not climate finance, and we cannot accept these neocolonial schemes to be propped as a success of COP29 in lieu of paying the climate debt owed to the Global South.” 

Lise Masson, Friends of the Earth International.

“Carbon markets are not climate finance. They are not the meaningful Real Zero action we desperately need while the world reaches record-breaking temperatures. They are a get-out-of-jail-free card for the world’s Big Polluters and Global North governments. And they condemn people and the planet. For this COP to claim victory, it must reject these false solutions that have been found to be essentially junk time and time again.  It just delivers the Global North’s climate debt and fair share of climate action. And it must defund genocide and finally kick Big Polluters out.” 

Rachel Rose Jackson, Director of Climate Research and Policy, Corporate Accountability.

“This is a bad process and a worse outcome. By trying to ram through loose standards for dangerous carbon crediting mechanisms behind closed doors, the Supervisory Board is handing Big Oil a gift and setting course for climate disaster. Under these sham guidelines, speculative so-called ‘carbon removal’ technologies and ‘carbon capture’ schemes led by oil and gas companies could be counted as carbon offsets – even if they increase climate pollution. Up to 79% of current ‘carbon capture’ operating capacity is just used to produce more fossil fuels, and these guidelines open the door for even more public money for polluting industries. Governments have already spent over USD 25 billion of public money on carbon capture and are planning to spend up to USD 240 billion more, but currently operating carbon capture projects have captured almost no emissions. This dodgy deal shows the Supervisory Board is more interested in looking like they are acting on climate change than actually acting on climate change – UN states should reject it immediately.” 

Myriam Douo, Oil Change International.

“The approval of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement represents a violation of human rights and the original rights of Indigenous peoples. Turning environmental protection and biodiversity into a commodity ignores the sacred value that these beings represent for Indigenous communities. They want to convince us that they can save the planet by selling our forests and the life that lives in them, but this is just another business tactic that only benefits big polluters. Instead of protecting, this policy puts our natural resources at risk and offends the principles of respect and harmony with nature. An approach that truly considers the genuine preservation and dignity of traditional peoples is urgently needed.The real solution for the climate is in the hands of the Indigenous peoples, who have been protecting the earth for millennia with their knowledge and their struggle.” Cacique Ninawa Huni Kui, Federation of Huni Kui People of the State of Acre Coordinator – Amazon, Brazil

“It is a very bad signal to open this finance COP by legitimizing carbon markets as a solution to climate change. They’re not – they will increase inequalities, infringe on human rights, and hinder real climate action. In adopting Article 6, the COP presidency is setting the tone for the remainder of the climate talks and confusing ‘climate finance’ with ‘markets’. COP29 is and should remain a finance COP, not a “markets” COP. Countries affected by climate change desperately need real money. The real win for this COP will be in securing 1 trillion a year in grants, not bonds, nor fake offset mechanisms that are a thinly veiled excuse for the world’s biggest polluters to pretend they’re paying their share. Dangerous distractions masquerading as emissions reductions will not suffice. We are here in Baku to demand a new, real climate finance goal, and we won’t accept schemes that only serve to pad the pockets of climate culprits.” 

Ilan Zugman, 350.org Latin America and Caribbean Director says:

“Carbon markets are not a solution to the climate crisis, and by pushing them through at this COP Indigenous People and those in the Global South are being further condemned by the Global North to suffer catastrophic consequences. At best, it is an insult to the legitimacy of the COP processes, and at worst it is a gift to the fossil fuel industry to continue to pollute unimpeded. Carbon markets are not climate finance, with this agreement in particular riddled with loopholes and false solutions that enable big polluters. This decision is putting the entire aim of the Paris Agreement at risk.” Dylan Hamilton, Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth (ANGRY).

“The Africa Make Big Polluters Coalition urgently demands that COP29 unequivocally reject false solutions like carbon markets. These markets are not merely a deceptive substitute for genuine climate finance; they allow polluters to commodify our planet’s future while continuing to pollute our environment. As we gather to confront the climate crisis, we must remember: you can’t buy air from one part of the world to another, and that is precisely what carbon markets represent—another false solution threatening the very existence of our planet.This deception comes at an unbearable cost to thousands of frontline and grassroots communities who have lost their land, livelihoods, families, and lives due to these harmful carbon market projects. We must stand united and demand real, impactful solutions that prioritize the health of our planet and its people. Governments at COP29 must reject carbon markets and commit to meaningful climate action without delay. Big polluters must be held accountable for their undeniable contribution to this climate crisis—the time for action is now!”
Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director , Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa

“Apart from undermining established procedures, a big source of frustration for us is the fact that false ‘solutions’ like removals are still on the table. History tells us that these mechanisms distract from real and lasting emission cuts and have adverse impacts on the rights and livelihoods of communities worldwide. They drive land dispossession, undermine food sovereignty, erode democratic control over resources, privatise global commons, exploit labour, and intensify the most destructive elements of the capitalist system.

We have been very categorical: any mechanism premised on allowing polluters to continue business as usual, to justify fossil fuel use, or to persist in colonising and plundering the global South is not a solution.”

Jax Bongon, IBON International

“For more than two decades of operation, carbon markets have proven to be a completely useless mechanism for reducing emissions, a source of shady business that has only served large emitters to evade their responsibility and deepen the climate crisis by promoting projects that generate impacts and violate the rights of communities.”

Eduardo Giesen, Regional Coordinator DCJ Latin America and the Caribbean. 

“Today, States allowed this rogue move from the Supervisory Body to prevail in the quest to start COP29 with a “win.” But this is hardly a win for people or planet.  Approving this without discussion or debate on this approach, sets a dangerous precedent for the entire negotiation process. This is very concerning from a procedural standpoint: it bypasses States’ ability to even discuss , much less revise the standards before they go into effect. States’ oversight is all the more critical as the Supervisory Body’s efforts to get this done has resulted in risky rules that will lead to human rights violations and environmental harm.  While States won’t be able to undo this move, they can still partially correct the wrong by giving strong guidance to the Supervisory Body that ensures further rules are adopted in line with science, human rights, and international law.”
Erika Lennon, Senior Attorney, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)  

“As the last decades have shown, carbon markets are not only a false solution to the climate crisis but also perpetuate the extractive colonial model of development and human rights violations. The text on removals as it is now, opens the floodgates to very harmful activities like geoengineering which will only worsen the climate crisis and divert attention from real solutions. Today, COP29 has had a very bad start and sets an appalling precedent from a procedural point of view, but above all, it has taken yet another step on the road to climate disaster by backing false solutions and the interest of a few to the detriment of the planet and peoples.”
Coraina de la Plaza, Global Coordinator, Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance

“This is not a success for COP 29, this is a climate and development disaster. Carbon markets are pollution permits allowing wealthy nations and companies to emit CO2 at will, funding neocolonial projects that exclude people and do little for the climate.”

Alison Doig, Recourse

Contact Us

Julian, DCJ, +306941437285, [email protected]

COP29

Climate justice groups condemn COP29’s carbon markets decision setting the tone for corporate profits to prevail people’s interests

PRESS RELEASE:

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN, 11 NOV 24 – As the global community gathers for the start of COP29, climate justice groups deplore the gaveling through of harmful carbon markets on the first day of the conference. This is not only an undemocratic process that threatens the credibility of this conference, it sets the tone for this COP to put Big Polluters’ profits above people’s rights. 

The failure of voluntary carbon markets have shown that carbon markets, offsets, and removals do not work. Instead, they provide a smokescreen for big polluters to keep on emitting at the expense of people and nature. Time and again, these neocolonial schemes have resulted in land grabs, Indigenous Peoples rights and human rights violations, and the undermining of food sovereignty. 

Fully operationalizing carbon markets on the first day of COP29 sends an appalling message to the world for a COP that is set to see the delivery of urgently needed climate finance: Big Polluters and Global North governments may celebrate this as a success, and many will argue that carbon markets can provide the finance needed for a just energy transition, adaptation, and loss and damage in the global South. 

But carbon markets only fill the pockets of Big Polluters, they cannot – and will not – deliver the climate finance needed and owed to developing countries. The gavelling through of this decision on the first day of COP29 sets a dangerous precedent. The documents from the Supervisory Body must go through the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) for all parties to negotiate on. The rushing through of this decision is undemocratic and undermines the whole process.

Real, proven, community-centered and cost-effective solutions to justly address the climate crisis are increasingly being swept aside in favor of these industry-basked, risky, expensive, and harm-inducing false solutions. Climate justice begins with ending financing for and promotion of false solutions, instead, this COP must deliver the urgently needed climate finance owed to the global South. Bulldozing through Article 6.4 on the first day of the COP without any discussions and opportunity to negotiate by the Parties undermines the CMA, the COP and subverts the entire UNFCCC COP process. 

“Bulldozing through the Carbon Market methodology and text on the first day of the COP without any discussions and opportunity to negotiate by the Parties undermines the CMA, the COP and subverts the entire UNFCCC COP process. The arrival of the carbon market through the backdoor is a bad beginning for this COP, the global south, the Indigenous Peoples, forest and the front line communities. A global mobilization against the carbon markets is the need of the hour now.”

Souparna Lahiri, Senior Climate and Biodiversity Policy Advisor, Global Forest Coalition

“Carbon markets put Indigenous Peoples’ lives at risk. For over 20 years, these fraudulent mechanisms have allowed fossil fuel industries to continue with impunity. At this COP 29, the corporate capture has superseded any semblance of UN democracy with a move from the COP Presidency to go rogue and push through Article 6 carbon market methodology and removals texts without following party-driven procedure. IEN strongly opposes geoengineering technologies in the activities on removals text, which still has not produced a list of what removals technologies will even be included in A6.4 as an offset. We will continue to voice our opposition against Article 6 carbon markets.

Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. 

“The gavelling through of carbon markets on the first day of COP29 is unacceptable and undermines the credibility of the whole process. Further, it is opening the floodgates for a global carbon market that will have devastating impacts on communities in the Global South, on Indigenous Peoples, and on small peasant farmers first and foremost. Carbon markets are not climate finance, and we cannot accept these neocolonial schemes to be propped as a success of COP29 in lieu of paying the climate debt owed to the Global South.” 

Lise Masson, Friends of the Earth International

“Carbon markets are not climate finance. They are not the meaningful Real Zero action we desperately need while the world reaches record-breaking temperatures. They are a get-out-of-jail-free card for the world’s Big Polluters and Global North governments. And they condemn people and the planet. For this COP to claim victory, it must reject these false solutions that have been found to be essentially junk time and time again.  It just delivers the Global North’s climate debt and fair share of climate action. And it must defund genocide and finally kick Big Polluters out.” 

Rachel Rose Jackson, Director of Climate Research and Policy, Corporate Accountability.

“This is a bad process and a worse outcome. By trying to ram through loose standards for dangerous carbon crediting mechanisms behind closed doors, the Supervisory Board is handing Big Oil a gift and setting course for climate disaster. Under these sham guidelines, speculative so-called ‘carbon removal’ technologies and ‘carbon capture’ schemes led by oil and gas companies could be counted as carbon offsets – even if they increase climate pollution. Up to 79% of current ‘carbon capture’ operating capacity is just used to produce more fossil fuels, and these guidelines open the door for even more public money for polluting industries. Governments have already spent over USD 25 billion of public money on carbon capture and are planning to spend up to USD 240 billion more, but currently operating carbon capture projects have captured almost no emissions. This dodgy deal shows the Supervisory Board is more interested in looking like they are acting on climate change than actually acting on climate change – UN states should reject it immediately.” 

Myriam Douo, Oil Change International.

“The approval of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement represents a violation of human rights and the original rights of Indigenous peoples. Turning environmental protection and biodiversity into a commodity ignores the sacred value that these beings represent for Indigenous communities. They want to convince us that they can save the planet by selling our forests and the life that lives in them, but this is just another business tactic that only benefits big polluters. Instead of protecting, this policy puts our natural resources at risk and offends the principles of respect and harmony with nature. An approach that truly considers the genuine preservation and dignity of traditional peoples is urgently needed.The real solution for the climate is in the hands of the Indigenous peoples, who have been protecting the earth for millennia with their knowledge and their struggle.” 

Cacique Ninawa Huni Kui, Federation of Huni Kui People of the State of Acre Coordinator – Amazon, Brazil

“It is a very bad signal to open this finance COP by legitimizing carbon markets as a solution to climate change. They’re not – they will increase inequalities, infringe on human rights, and hinder real climate action. In adopting Article 6, the COP presidency is setting the tone for the remainder of the climate talks and confusing ‘climate finance’ with ‘markets’. COP29 is and should remain a finance COP, not a “markets” COP. Countries affected by climate change desperately need real money. The real win for this COP will be in securing 1 trillion a year in grants, not bonds, nor fake offset mechanisms that are a thinly veiled excuse for the world’s biggest polluters to pretend they’re paying their share. Dangerous distractions masquerading as emissions reductions will not suffice. We are here in Baku to demand a new, real climate finance goal, and we won’t accept schemes that only serve to pad the pockets of climate culprits.” 

Ilan Zugman, 350.org Latin America and Caribbean Director

“Carbon markets are not a solution to the climate crisis, and by pushing them through at this COP Indigenous People and those in the Global South are being further condemned by the Global North to suffer catastrophic consequences. At best, it is an insult to the legitimacy of the COP processes, and at worst it is a gift to the fossil fuel industry to continue to pollute unimpeded. Carbon markets are not climate finance, with this agreement in particular riddled with loopholes and false solutions that enable big polluters. This decision is putting the entire aim of the Paris Agreement at risk.” 

Dylan Hamilton, Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth (ANGRY).

“The Africa Make Big Polluters Coalition urgently demands that COP29 unequivocally reject false solutions like carbon markets. These markets are not merely a deceptive substitute for genuine climate finance; they allow polluters to commodify our planet’s future while continuing to pollute our environment. As we gather to confront the climate crisis, we must remember: you can’t buy air from one part of the world to another, and that is precisely what carbon markets represent—another false solution threatening the very existence of our planet.This deception comes at an unbearable cost to thousands of frontline and grassroots communities who have lost their land, livelihoods, families, and lives due to these harmful carbon market projects. We must stand united and demand real, impactful solutions that prioritize the health of our planet and its people. Governments at COP29 must reject carbon markets and commit to meaningful climate action without delay. Big polluters must be held accountable for their undeniable contribution to this climate crisis—the time for action is now!”
Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director , Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa

“Apart from undermining established procedures, a big source of frustration for us is the fact that false ‘solutions’ like removals are still on the table. History tells us that these mechanisms distract from real and lasting emission cuts and have adverse impacts on the rights and livelihoods of communities worldwide. They drive land dispossession, undermine food sovereignty, erode democratic control over resources, privatise global commons, exploit labour, and intensify the most destructive elements of the capitalist system.

We have been very categorical: any mechanism premised on allowing polluters to continue business as usual, to justify fossil fuel use, or to persist in colonising and plundering the global South is not a solution.”

Jax Bongon, IBON International

“For more than two decades of operation, carbon markets have proven to be a completely useless mechanism for reducing emissions, a source of shady business that has only served large emitters to evade their responsibility and deepen the climate crisis by promoting projects that generate impacts and violate the rights of communities.”

Eduardo Giesen, Regional Coordinator DCJ Latin America and the Caribbean. 

“Today, States allowed this rogue move from the Supervisory Body to prevail in the quest to start COP29 with a “win.” But this is hardly a win for people or planet.  Approving this without discussion or debate on this approach, sets a dangerous precedent for the entire negotiation process. This is very concerning from a procedural standpoint: it bypasses States’ ability to even discuss , much less revise the standards before they go into effect. States’ oversight is all the more critical as the Supervisory Body’s efforts to get this done has resulted in risky rules that will lead to human rights violations and environmental harm.  While States won’t be able to undo this move, they can still partially correct the wrong by giving strong guidance to the Supervisory Body that ensures further rules are adopted in line with science, human rights, and international law.”
Erika Lennon, Senior Attorney, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)  

“As the last decades have shown, carbon markets are not only a false solution to the climate crisis but also perpetuate the extractive colonial model of development and human rights violations. The text on removals as it is now, opens the floodgates to very harmful activities like geoengineering which will only worsen the climate crisis and divert attention from real solutions. Today, COP29 has had a very bad start and sets an appalling precedent from a procedural point of view, but above all, it has taken yet another step on the road to climate disaster by backing false solutions and the interest of a few to the detriment of the planet and peoples.”
Coraina de la Plaza, Global Coordinator, Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance

Contact Us

Julian, DCJ, +306941437285, [email protected]

COP29, Interventions, Press Releases

Uncertainty Clouds Urgent Breakthrough Needed in Baku

Media Advisory #COP29

Press Conference – The Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) 

It has been over a year since the apartheid regime of Israel, fully supported and funded by other colonial states, unleashed its latest genocidal attacks in Gaza. Against this backdrop, the governments are gathering in Baku for the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference Of Parties 29 (COP29). 

Originally dubbed the “Finance COP”, COP29 seems set to become a “False Solutions COP” as political turmoil and economic uncertainty unsettle government delegations driving desperately towards a new climate deal. At COP29 in Baku, the Global North governments are arriving without clear authority or even commitment to make deals due to recent election reversals and collapsed ruling coalitions, yet all  countries are mandated to agree on a new goal that delivers urgently needed climate finance to the Global South countries.  

Eager to get any deal done, the COP29’s Presidency is pushing a dangerous and undemocratic agreement on carbon markets that would present as “climate finance” and would provide the ‘get out of jail free card’ for polluters  to continue with their emissions further, pushing the planet on a path to catastrophe. Join us as members of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice preview the political dynamics driving climate diplomats to play with fire in a world already warming beyond scientists’ worst nightmares.

When: Monday, 11 November | 10:30am (Baku)

Where: Press Conference – Natavan, Area D / WATCH LIVE

Who:

  • Meena Raman, Third World Network
  • Claire Miranda, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development
  • Jax Bongon, IBON International
  • Asad Rehman, War on Want

Contact Us Julian, DCJ, +306941437285, [email protected]

COP29, Press Releases

COP29: Repression epidemic regarding climate activists and human rights defenders

November 11 2024, 1130 AZT / 0730 UTC+4

Baku, Azerbaijan – The world is in the throes of unprecedented repression regarding climate activists, human rights defenders, journalists, academics and others who express opposing views to their government, according to a new report, Climate Talks and the Chilling Effect: Repression on the Rise, released on the opening day of the latest round of UN climate negotiations, taking place in Azerbaijan. The problem is widespread, and three leading civil society networks – Climate Action Network, Publish What You Pay and Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice – assert this as an epidemic impeding crucial climate action and violating human rights laws across the world. Without these voices of civil society, the fight for climate justice cannot succeed, jeopardising the integrity of climate summits themselves. 

The report reveals how repression and barriers, like visa restrictions and hotel price gouging, have significantly worsened at the most recent UN climate negotiations from Katowice to Baku, as well as most recently in Kenya, Germany and the UK. Without urgent action from governments and the UN, COP30 in Brazil could fall victim too, the organisations warn.

Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network, said: “Without a robust defence of human rights for all who challenge injustice – climate defenders, journalists, and civil society alike – the foundations of climate justice crumble, jeopardising the integrity of COP29 and all future climate summits. Repression doesn’t just silence individuals; it weakens our collective power to secure a sustainable, just future. From the peaceful protestors in Kenya and Azerbaijan to indigenous leaders in Latin America, those on the frontlines are risking everything for society and the planet. COP29 must be more than a summit of promises. Governments must stand up to end the persecution of climate defenders now. Because without them, we do not have climate action – we have empty words.”

Over 1,500 climate and human rights defenders have been murdered since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, and there appears to be no let up as the latest death toll stands at 2,100, with Latin America having the highest number of recorded killings worldwide. 

Surveillance, intimidation, draconian laws and police brutality are on the rise, while Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, has called on governments to “take seriously the hostile narratives that are fast spreading worldwide, including in historic democracies, to vilify and stigmatise people exercising their fundamental freedoms.”

Azerbaijan, the leading fossil fuel supplier to Israel, plays COP29 host against a backdrop of documented human rights violations by the country’s government led by Ilham Aliyev. In 2024, Azerbaijan has witnessed its most severe repression yet, with a sharp rise in political prisoners, targeting of academics, and the harshest media restrictions in its history as a member of the Council of Europe. 

In Germany, in April 2024, police cracked down on peaceful pro-Palestinian protestors, with numerous incidents of excessive force and arbitrary detentions reported during demonstrations across major cities like Berlin, while dozens of civil society representatives and delegates from Africa and Asia experienced trouble getting visas to attend the annual mid-year UN climate talks that take place in Bonn.

Asad Rehman, Executive Director of War on Want, member of Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ), said: “Death and destruction from climate violence and genocide in Gaza is being actively fuelled by the actions of rich countries such as the USA, UK and EU. They are willing to burn down the rules-based system, trash international law and no longer even pretend that the lives of black and brown people matter. When people of conscience stand up to protect our planet and expose the complicity of Western governments, its banks and corporations that are profiting from repression and fuelling climate catastrophe, they are being met with repression, authoritarianism, and criminalization. We stand at a crossroads with the very future of humanity at stake, facing a life or death struggle for humanity: on the one side the right of everyone to live with dignity or a world of walls and fences and sacrificed people.”

Several peaceful and unarmed protesters, many of whom were youth, were killed and injured in Kenya by police during #RejectFinanceBill2024 marches in June 2024. While in the UK, there are currently 41 political prisoners, among which are campaigners who received what is thought to be the longest ever sentences for non-violent protest.

Dr. Ketakandriana Rafitoson, Executive Director of Publish What You Pay, said: “Escalating repression of activists is smothering the voices that matter most in the urgent shift to a cleaner and fairer energy future. As fossil fuel dependency fades, this suppression is not only unjust—it is dangerously short-sighted. A just and equitable energy transition requires an open civic space and the active participation of those on the frontlines – like Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu in Azerbaijan, whose insights and resilience are crucial to achieving a people-centred agenda for the planet.”

To address the repression epidemic, Climate Action Network, Publish What You Pay and Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice demand the following:

  • All governments, in particular, Azerbaijan, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, the European Union – notably Germany, and the UK, must end their crackdown on civil society and journalists, and release all those arbitrarily detained and bring perpetrators to swift justice. 
  • States and the international community, including the United Nations through all its bodies, must take seriously the hostile narratives that are fast spreading worldwide, including in Western democracies, to vilify and stigmatise people exercising their fundamental freedoms.
  • Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change must recognise the legitimate work of people, groups and organisations that defend the environment and human rights, contributing to climate justice. 
  • All host countries of UNFCCC-related meetings and events, including Azerbaijan, Brazil, and Germany, respectively the hosts of COP29, COP30, and of the sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies, should guarantee open civic space before, during, and after the events and communicate around the steps taken to do so.
  • All Parties must combat reprisals and acts of intimidation against Indigenous Peoples, defenders or climate activists for their engagement with the UNFCCC by publicly denouncing all cases of reprisals, and establishing an accessible focal point for reprisals, with a mandate to collect information, to share it with the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and facilitate redress. 

Please find the detailed Press Note below:

Climate Talks and the Chilling Effect_ Repression on the RiseDownload

Climate Action Network (CAN) is the world’s largest climate network made up of more than 2000 civil society organisations in over 130 countries, together fighting the climate crisis. Since its inception in the 1980s, CAN has grown into a strong, member-driven network with a membership spanning all six continents in over 130 countries.

Publish What You Pay is a global network with over 1000 of civil society organisations in more than 50 countries. Founded in 2002, PWYP advocates   for an energy transition that leaves no one behind. PWYP listens to and elevates the voices and needs of people living in oil, gas, and mining dependent countries. 

Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) is a network of over 200 climate and human rights organisations working at international, regional and local level on issues of climate justice and just transition. Formed in 2012, DCJ campaigns on energy transformation and food, land, and water, as well as establishing itself as the convener of climate justice groups in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, where DCJ makes up one half of the Environmental NGO Constituency alongside Climate Action Network.

Contacts:

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Attending COP29?

Join CAN’s WhatsApp, Signal and/or media distribution list for updates

Interventions, SB60

SB60 CLOSING INTERVENTION BY GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE

I am Erica Njuguna from Kenya, speaking on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice. I voluntarily and readily disclose that I have no direct or financial ties to the fossil fuel industry or other polluting industries.

We see a ROUGH road to Baku given the little progress and deepening distrust here in Bonn.

BURYING data from Annex 1 reports that showed the richest nations cut only one-fifth of their emissions does NOT reverse the deteriorating spirit of cooperation. Under-delivery of the promised climate finance of 100 bn dollars has further shown the true face of the developed countries who have gotten rich on the backs of our lives and our communities.

Rich countries need to step up to their responsibilities and must drastically cut their own emissions and immediately phase out all fossil fuels. If rich countries are looking to rebuild trust with the Global South, they must not block progress on an ambitious NCQG that goes towards real solutions and not towards dangerous distractions. Carbon finance is NOT climate finance, and selling it as such serves only polluters.

We need reparations in trillions not billions, and we need them to go towards real solutions – those developed by peoples who are at the frontlines and suffer the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis.

Lastly, we want to reiterate there can be no business as usual during a genocide. Despite a resolution on a ceasefire being passed in the UN Security Council, bombing and attacks have continued in Gaza. These issues are deeply interlinked and these same actors are perpetuating both the climate crisis and the systemic violence happening around the world.

There is no climate justice on occupied land and there is no climate justice without human rights.

Press Releases, SB60, Statements

Rough Road to COP29: Rich Countries Pushing Global South Off the Tracks

13 June, 2023

Bonn, Germany

2023 was the hottest year on record with global temperatures close to 1.5 degrees. As the 60th Subsidiary Bodies meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: SBSTA and SBI come to a close, the global community faces stark realities about the ongoing climate crisis and the persistent inaction of developed countries. Recent UNFCCC reports reveal that rich nations, historically responsible for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, have only met a quarter of the emission cuts urged by scientists. These same countries are pushing developing nations for ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) while putting on a concerted effort to not commit or deliver on their own climate finance obligations urgently needed by the developing countries.

Adding to the injustice, rich countries continue to advocate for false solutions like nature-based solutions, geoengineering, carbon capture and storage, and carbon markets. These tactics allow them and their corporations to evade genuine emission reductions and delay the phase-out of fossil fuels, perpetuating the exploitation of the Global South communities at the frontline of this crisis. Rich countries need to step up and pay up for their responsibility by delivering on an ambitious New Common Quantified Goal that ensures new, additional, predictable and non-debt creating grant based public finance that goes towards real solutions and not towards dangerous distractions. The Global South is owed reparations in trillions and not billions and we need them to go towards solutions developed by peoples who are at the frontlines and suffer the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis.

As we head towards COP29, it is imperative to hold these nations accountable and demand real, equitable climate action.

Quotes and Reactions from DCJ Members

Meena Raman, Third World Network

“If the developed world is serious about ambition in mitigation, they must in their forthcoming communication of their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) indicate that they will phase out from the use of fossil fuels urgently and will provide the scale of finance needed for developing countries to enable their just and equitable energy transition. The rich world must also indicate the financial resources they will provide for the new collective quantified goal on finance which has to be agreed to in Baku by the end of this year, to enable developing countries to address their mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage needs. Thus far, developed countries have refused to indicate any quantum of finance. They have money for bombs and war but have no money for paying up their climate debt. They must Step Up, Pay Up and meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement. They have the money but not the political will and this must change, if we are serious about enabling a liveable planet for all. “

Mariana Pinzón, CENSAT Agua Viva/Friends of the Earth Colombia

“One more round of climate negotiations ends and, once again, profound decisions are postponed for a new cycle. The discussions do not respond to the urgency of a crisis that is growing exponentially, but to the rhythm of large fossil fuel corporations, linked in turn to the world financial system, and to the wealth of the countries of the Global North. Those most affected, the communities of the Global South, are not heard. The recognition of an ecological debt owed by the Global North to the Global South does not appear in the discussions, let alone the obligation to reduce their GHG emissions to real zero not “net” zero. Neo-extractivist and debt-linked finance promise to maintain the status quo. Meanwhile, more people are being displaced by the climate crisis as right-wing governments gain space and promise to put up their walls.”

ASSEM Ekue, Les Amis de la Terre-Togo

“The false climate solutions we’re hearing about at the Bonn climate talks, such as carbon offsetting, carbon trading schemes and geo-engineering, are nothing more than technological or commercial schemes promoted by fossil fuel companies and their political allies. Their consequences include deforestation, land grabbing and violations of the rights of local communities in Africa. They are undoubtedly a danger to communities and ecosystems.”

Eduardo Giesen, DCJ Regional Coordinator, Latin America and the Caribbean 

“Once again in Bonn, climate negotiations continue to move away from the systemic change that requires solving the climate crisis with justice, collaboration, peace and care for nature. On the contrary, the logic of arrogance, war, commodification and corporate power, expressed in north-south relations and the imposition of false solutions within the framework of negotiations, continue to prevail.

For organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, it is a new frustration that reinforces our effort to focus on producing systemic change from our own territories and communities.”

Dr Tamra Gilbertson, Indigenous Environmental Network

“Negotiators at the SBSTA 60 continued geopolitical colonial practices that uphold power regimes in the global North putting Indigenous Peoples, women and local communities’ lives at risk. With the UN claiming lack of funds, close to a third of the budget is set aside to build and continue carbon markets in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and to continue the clean development mechanism running in a limbo status. The UNFCCC processes undermine efforts to stop the serious threat of climate change and its underpinning processes, which will certainly be apparent in Baku in November. We do not have time to continue down the path of colonial-development fossil fuel power regimes heightened by the UN; it is time to end this violence.”

Asad Rehman, Executive Director, War on Want:

“Transition is now inevitable, the question is what kind of transition? The answer from rich countries in Bonn is that the goal is an unjust and inequitable transition condemning the majority of the world to increased climate violence, keeping them trapped in unequal societies. Rich countries need to stop financing bombs and bullets and instead invest in the life-saving systems needed by those on the frontlines.

Global North countries appear determined to bully the Global South while billions around the world desperately need concrete international action, including sufficient additional non-debt creating finance and technology transfers. This must be enabled by securing trade justice, implementing a fairer global taxation system, and redirecting damaging subsidies.”

Souparna Lahiri, Global Forest Coalition

“With 6 years to go for 2030 and what looks like a pretty ambitious but scientifically deduced benchmark of 1.5, the UNFCCC has lost the plot. We are facing a climate chaos and not a climate crisis anymore! Where the markets dictate, the dirty polluters preach and the rich west wants to come out clean of its historical responsibility of ravaging our planet,  our mother earth. We have had enough of these false promises and false solutions. It’s time to reclaim our land, our forests, and justice for Indigenous Peoples, women and local communities who are victims of colonialism, capitalism and climate colonialism. That’s our pathway to climate justice, real solutions and real zero.”

Sara Shaw, Friends of the Earth International 

“Developing countries need trillions in new public finance for adaptation, loss and damage and for a just transition away from fossil fuels. But developed countries are not even offering crumbs from the table and are blocking all progress. They want developing countries to accept loans which will further fuel debt, and are pushing already discredited carbon market finance schemes which causes grave harm in the Global South. This is a disaster.”

Rachel Rose Jackson, Corporate Accountability

“The Bonn climate talks produced wanting and watered down outcomes totally out of touch with reality.  Millions of lives are already being lost and impacted as a result of the climate crisis, yet urgency and fairness is totally lacking in this process. What is not lacking is the chokehold the fossil fuel industry and other Big Polluters have over this process, and there is no shortage of bullying by Global North governments evading their fair share. Until we end the ability of Big Polluters to write the rules of climate action, climate talks will continue to condemn rather than save lives.”

Rachitaa Gupta, Global Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

“We saw deepening distrust at the climate talks in Bonn as rich countries continued to block progress and refused to step up and own up to their historical responsibilities for the ongoing climate crisis. We call out the misplaced priorities of the rich countries as they mobilise more money for the ongoing genocide in Palestine than for climate action.These same actors are perpetuating both the climate crisis and the systemic violence happening around the world.

As the Global South continues to reels from the climate crisis induced devastation, it is time for rich countries to reckon with their history and pay up the climate debt owed to the Global South. We need reparations in trillions not billions and we need them now to go towards real solutions – those developed by peoples who are at the frontlines and suffer the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis”

Dr Leon Sealey-Huggins, War on Want on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice Just Transition Working Group

“We leave Bonn with little concrete progress on the Just Transition Work Programme. Yet we need rapid, just and equitable transitions essential to transforming our economies and societies in the face of climate breakdown and rampant global inequalities. Rich countries’ shenanigans included refusing to honour the original decision which stipulated that ‘international cooperation’ would enable just transitions (3/CMA.5). They would prefer the JTWP to be a talking shop, and refuse to support practical measures such as finance or technology transfer. We will continue to build grassroots power in our communities to fight for real change, and push for more tangible outcomes at COP29.”

Laurie van der Burg, Oil Change International:

“While lives are being lost in unbearable heat waves in Sudan, last year’s breakthrough agreement to transition away from fossil fuels was barely mentioned in these negotiations. The rich countries most responsible for this crisis must pay up for a fair fossil fuel phase-out and climate damages, without worsening unjust debts. We know they have more than enough money. It’s just going to the wrong things. 

“G7 leaders gathering in Italy today must face their responsibility. Instead of siding with fossil fuel interests, they need to deliver a fair fossil fuel phase-out, end fossil fuel handouts, and put a strong climate finance offer on the table. This is essential to build a fair and renewable future for all.”

Victor Menotti, Interim US Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

“DCJ sees a ROUGH road to Baku given the little progress and deepening distrust here in Bonn. BURYING data from Annex 1 reports showing that the richest nations cut only one-fifth of the emissions scientists urged does NOT reverse the deteriorating spirit of cooperation. Nor does publicly declaring success while actually delivering only $51B of the $100B promised, as their reports reveal. Biennial Transparency reports (BTRs) BEFORE Baku – as well as coming clean on why such poor performance – are paramount.

We DO see a HOPEFUL way ahead, but only if rich countries step up to their responsibilities by drafting NDCs that are EQUITABLY aligned with 1.5C. That means the biggest historical polluters must not do only the global AVERAGE but indeed much more…For example, by making PERMANENT the pause on new LNG export permits to end the world’s largest expansion of fossil fuels. Ending LNG‘s expansion would convince other countries that aligning with 1.5C is truly the North Star of policymaking for the biggest historical polluters.”

Harjeet Singh, Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative

“Climate finance at international talks has morphed into a battleground, a glaring testament to years of neglect and deception by developed nations. These countries have not only skirted their historical responsibilities but have also consistently deployed delay tactics, shifting burdens onto the shoulders of developing countries.

“We are on the brink of a catastrophic failure of climate talks, harming those least responsible for the crisis. It is time for wealthy nations to confront their obligations head-on, to integrate substantial climate finance commitments into their national budgets, and to impose punitive taxes on fossil fuel corporations and the super-rich — those who have profited most from the exploitation of our planet. 

“As we witness devastating impacts affecting people and nature, our patience has run thin. We need action to raise trillions of dollars, not excuses, to finance the urgent climate solutions needed to safeguard our future and restore justice to the communities bearing the brunt of climate change.”

Teresa Anderson, Global lead on climate justice, ActionAid International: 

“Across the board, negotiation tracks nearly ran off the rails with rich countries blocking the finance needed to make climate action happen. COP29 negotiations in Baku on the new climate finance goal will be a fork in the road for Planet Earth. Developing countries have been carrying the costs of the climate crisis, and their patience is now stretched beyond bearing. Right now, it’s the people who have done almost nothing to cause the climate crisis who are paying for it with their lost livelihoods, their hunger, their disappearing islands, and their lives.

“There’s no getting around the fact that if we want enough climate action to ensure a safe future for everyone, we’re going to have to find a way of covering the costs. The climate bill will be in multiple trillions of dollars, but the good news is that tax justice can be a game-changer for climate action. New ActionAid research shows that developed countries can raise USD 2 trillion for climate action by raising their tax-to-GDP ratios by four percentage points, with a range of progressive tax measures that address tax avoidance, and target the wealthiest corporations and individuals.”

Quotes in other languages

[Portuguese]

Dr Tamra Gilbertson, Indigenous Environmental Network

“Os negociadores no SBSTA 60 continuaram as práticas coloniais geopolíticas que sustentam regimes de poder no Norte global, colocando povos indígenas, mulheres e vidas de comunidades locais em risco. Com a ONU alegando falta de fundos, quase um terço do orçamento é reservado para construir e continuar os mercados de carbono no Artigo 6 do Acordo de Paris e para continuar o mecanismo de desenvolvimento limpo em execução em um status de limbo. Os processos da UNFCCC prejudicam os esforços para deter a séria ameaça das mudanças climáticas e seus processos de sustentação, que certamente serão aparentes em Baku em novembro. Não temos tempo para continuar no caminho dos regimes colonial de poder do combustíveis fósseis pela ONU; é hora de acabar com essa violência.”

[Español]

Dr Tamra Gilbertson, Indigenous Environmental Network

“Los negociadores del SBSTA 60 continuaron con las prácticas coloniales geopolíticas que sostienen los regímenes de poder en el Norte global, poniendo en riesgo la vida de los pueblos indígenas, las mujeres y las comunidades locales. Mientras la ONU alega falta de fondos, cerca de un tercio del presupuesto se reserva para construir y mantener los mercados de carbono en el Artículo 6 del Acuerdo de París y para continuar con el mecanismo de desarrollo limpio funcionando en un estado de limbo. Los procesos de la CMNUCC socavan los esfuerzos para detener la grave amenaza del cambio climático y sus procesos subyacentes, lo que sin duda será evidente en Bakú en noviembre. No tenemos tiempo para continuar por el camino de los regímenes de desarrollo colonial basados ​​en combustibles fósiles y de acentuados por la ONU; es hora de poner fin a esta violencia.”

Mariana Pinzón, CENSAT Agua Viva/Friends of the Earth Colombia

“Termina una ronda más de negociaciones sobre el clima y, una vez más, las decisiones profundas se posponen para un nuevo ciclo. Las discusiones no responden a la urgencia de una crisis que crece exponencialmente, sino al ritmo de las grandes corporaciones de combustibles fósiles, vinculadas a su vez al sistema financiero mundial, y a la riqueza de los países del Norte Global. Los más afectados, las comunidades del Sur Global, no son escuchados. El reconocimiento de una deuda ecológica del Norte Global con el Sur Global no aparece en los debates, y mucho menos la obligación de reducir sus emisiones de GEI a cero real y no a cero “neto”. El neoextractivismo y las finanzas vinculadas a la deuda prometen mantener el statu quo. Mientras tanto, más personas se ven desplazadas por la crisis climática a medida que los gobiernos de derechas ganan espacio y levantan sus muros.”

Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice is a network of over 200 networks and organisations working globally, regionally, and locally on climate justice. Collectively we represent millions of climate activists on the ground.Our members are available for comments and interviews in different languages. Contact: Neha Gupta, [email protected]; Signal/Whatsapp: +91 9810 078 055

CBD COP16, Interventions, SB60

INTERVENTION BY GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE AT OCEAN AND CLIMATE CHANGE DIALOGUE

Thank you Mr. Chair,

I am Silvia Ribeiro speaking on behalf of the ENGO- Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.

We would like to emphasize three key aspects in these Dialogues:

1. We urge you to not narrow the importance and multiple functions of marine and coastal ecosystems to concepts such as “blue carbon” that reduce ecosystems only to carbon sinks. This is especially dangerous in the light of the pressure to commercialize oceans functions calling them services or credits to sell in new carbon markets.

2.   There are currently more than 40 outdoor marine geoengineering experiments planned or underway, most of them conducted for commercial purposes, which violate UN Treaty decisions and the rights of indigenous peoples and coastal communities.

It is essential that UNFCCC, honoring the precautionary approach, rejects any form of geoengineering applied to marine and coastal ecosystems, including so called “ocean carbon removal technologies” such as seaweed and biomass industrial cultivation and sinking; enhanced alkalinization of the ocean, ocean artificial upwelling; as well as other geoengineering technologies on marine ecosystems, like marine cloud brightening and albedo enhancement involving reflective particles.

In doing so, UNFCCC should recognize and uphold the decisions taken by the Convention on Biological Diversity establishing a de facto moratorium on the deployment of geoengineering techniques that may affect biodiversity (decision CBD X/33 (w)) and the London Convention and London Protocol amendments from 2008 and 2013 related to marine geoengineering techniques.

The London Protocol has since 2022 taken up the evaluation of the impacts on the above mentioned geoengineering techniques, and stated in 2023 that they have “ the potential for deleterious effects that are widespread, long-lasting or severe; and there is considerable uncertainty regarding their effects on the marine environment, human health, and on other uses of the ocean”, signaling their intent to extend regulation to this broader suite of technologies.

This Convention must avoid legitimizing marine geoengineering under Article 6.4  guidance on carbon markets – recognising that a key factor in banning experiments under the LC / LP is the commercial element. 

3.         The Ocean Dialogues and UNFCCC needs to recognize the main actors in maintaining the biodiversity of marine and ocean ecosystems: the indigenous peoples and coastal communities, whose traditional knowledge and livelihoods have conserved and increased biodiversity in these ecosystems. Their right to Free Prior and Informed Consent must be affirmed and honored for any activities and techniques that are proposed to be developed in ocean and marine ecosystems that would affect their territories.

Interventions, SB60

INTERVENTION BY GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE BY SeS JOINT WORK ON CLIMATE ACTION ON FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

My name is Angel Flores from the Philippines. I’m from World Animal Protection, delivering this statement on behalf of the ENGOs, Climate Action Network and Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice:

We are happy to see a roadmap drawn for this joint work and appreciate the flexibility of all to move forward, this is really good news for the “Sharmonivia” family. Congratulations and thanks to everyone

So we’re excited to already get going and to share ideas here for the workshops. Dont worry, we won’t miss out on the submissions either. 

Our networks represent many grassroots organisations and agroecological food producers, and we are very committed to contribute to this space, we have both the expertise and legitimacy for this. We want to ensure that voices on the frontlines of the climate crisis are heard, and that local knowledge is reflected here. 

For the workshop on systemic and holistic approaches to agriculture, food systems and food security, these bottom up contributions will be crucial to showcase lived experiences, and how agroecology enhances livelihoods.

We urge you to see us as active participants, not just mere observers in this process. We are ready to collaborate, also to put you in touch with experts on human rights, all interconnected with the Right to Food. 

For the first workshop, we ask that this space highlights real climate solutions that benefit the one in four people on the planet whose livelihoods depend on agriculture – solutions like agroecology. This workshop also provides a critical opportunity to go beyond agricultural production, and tackle the entire food system with a focus on food loss and waste, food security, and nutrition, and equitable approaches to diets. 

For the Means of Implementation workshop we have many ideas, the most important will be to ensure those means of implementation including finance, in the form of grants, NOT loans, will be accessible and match the needs and priorities of small-scale food producers, with a special focus on youth, women, indigenous peoples, marginalised communities and their collectives. We could work on the following tasks:

  • map opportunities for public finance to reach the local level
  • shape recommendations so that finance flows never undermine livelihoods, human rights and the right to food, and respect Locally-led adaptation principles
  • define a set of safeguards, so that climate finance in agriculture goes in the right direction, the agroecological transformation of food systems, with farmers’ livelihoods at its heart.  

We are looking forward to the work ahead, thank you.

Interventions, SB60

INTERVENTION BY GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE ON JUST TRANSITION WORK PROGRAMME

Thank you. I am Chadli Sadorra  from the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice. 

We in DCJ believe that the JTWP is one of the most promising outcomes that came out of COP28 last year. Its progress towards concrete actions on just transition is urgently required.

Which is why we regret to hear that parties aren’t able to progress in negotiations today.

Moving forward we hope parties can consider the following comments. We encourage parties to develop modalities, such as a work plan or plan of action, to ensure that this work programme reaches concrete and actionable solutions to ensure equitable and just transition for all. This work plan can be aimed at delivering key decisions and actions at COPs 30 and 31. It can also be structured to deliver concrete actions for each of the elements delineated in Article 2A to 2G of the work programme.

We do not share the view of some parties that the work programme is limited to the dialogues only. Proposing other modalities that can facilitate the work programme to reach concrete actions is not a “renegotiation” of decision 3/CMA 5. Framing it as such is obstructive to making the JTWP into an action-oriented work programme. Workers and communities from the global North and South cannot afford for this work programme to become a talk shop.

We are also of the view that international barriers to just transition, namely the lack and bad quality of climate finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity building, should also be addressed as part of the scope of the work programme, evident in Articles 2b, 2c, and 2g. 

We implore parties to please start addressing these barriers as well as other international and domestic resource mobilization requirements for just transition that can ensure climate actions and social protection measures for workers and communities globally.

Lastly, we also would like to reiterate the statements of some parties for increasing the involvement of non-party stakeholders and observers in the next dialogue and other work programme processes, such as identifying themes for the next dialogue to ensure a balanced choice of topics. We don’t think greater CSO participation is mutually exclusive to having modalities that operationalize the work programme towards concrete actions, as some have suggested yesterday. On the contrary, the latter may facilitate greater inclusivity and participation.

Thank you.

COP29, Interventions, SB60

INTERVENTION BY GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE  AT AD HOC WORKING GROUP ON NEW COLLECTIVE QUANTIFIED GOAL

Undelivered Intervention

Thank you co-facilitator. My name is Claire Miranda, from the Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development, a member of Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.

I am here today representing the people of the Global South, to confront an outrage that can no longer be ignored. In these very rooms where we have been repeatedly talking about how to address the climate crisis, we still need to be reminded of one simple but profoundly troubling reason of why we are here – because of the actions and inactions of rich country governments who continue to be the biggest polluters, causing unprecedented harm to our planet. The climate catastrophe that engulfs our people and communities is a direct result of the greed, negligence, and outright deceit of the rich country governments. 

You are the biggest polluters, the architects of this planetary destruction. The heatwaves that left our lands scorched, the typhoons that shattered our homes, the fossil fuel extraction that poisoned our planet – these are your legacies. For decades, you have perfected the art of inaction, the dirty tactics to evade your obligations while our people suffer and our lands die.

In this very space, where you are supposed to agree on a quantum that reflects the growing climate needs of the Global South and urgently deliver your obligations, you shamelessly divert the discussion. Instead of addressing the crisis you’ve created, you point fingers at developing countries and expand the contributor base, and then have the gall to limit the recipients of climate finance. You continue deflecting attention from the fact that it is YOU who are responsible. You erode the core principles of equity and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities, principles enshrined in the Convention which the Global South has fought hard for. How you mobilize the adequate amount to meet your obligation is your problem and should not be the burden of the Global South.

You have the audacity to claim you’ve met the $100 billion goal promised back in 2009. This is a blatant lie. Funds provided in loans, repackaged development assistance, contributions to MDBs – these are not climate finance. You continue to portray yourselves as climate champions, boasting of your commitment to help the most vulnerable cope with climate impacts. Yet, behind your flowery words lies the harsh reality: it is the Global South that has fed your people, provided you with human resources, and transferred its wealth to you through forced climate loans. You hide behind these deceptive narratives and then leave us to drown in the consequences of your actions. This claim is not just misleading; it is an insult to the people of the Global South who endure the worst of climate change every single day. Your false assertions are nothing more than a cowardly attempt to mask your utter failure to deliver your obligations.

I call upon the leaders of our nations, the negotiators here from the Global South who will be in Baku, to stand resolute. We implore you to demand these rich country governments – who continue to extract our resources, oppress our people and actively enabling the acts of genocide, who owe your people a huge climate debt – fulfill their obligations without delay. We will not be placated by more false assurances. 

As we approach COP29 in Baku, we issue a resolute warning: the people of the Global South are rising. Another endless talkshop is unacceptable. We will be more determined to expose your lies, spotlight your dirty tactics to derail progress and dismantle those empty promises. We will all demand that you #PayUp, fulfill your obligations, and we will settle for nothing less than complete accountability. We will not rest until justice is served and our people receive what is rightfully theirs.

Thank you!