Category Archives: COP29

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!

COP29, Interventions, SB60

SES JOINT WORK ON CLIMATE ACTION ON FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

Undelivered Intervention

Thank you co-facilitator. I am speaking on behalf of the collaboration between YOUNGO food & agriculture, the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, the Women and Gender constituency, the Indigenous Peoples constituency, and YOUNGO Animal Rights. 

We appreciate the updates that are being discussed here today, this is the spirit of collaboration and the strength of the agriculture negotiations. We are supportive of the removal of annex 4 mentioned in paragraph 3.

While we recognize that these multistakeholder initiatives seek to support food systems action, they should NOT be central to the Joint Work or form the basis for action, voice, power, and decision-making. The focus must remain on inclusive, Party-driven, democratic processes that prioritize the needs and voices of vulnerable communities and Indigenous Peoples.

These initiatives platform and enable false solutions —-  such as GMOs, pesticides, factory farms, carbon offsets, ‘carbon farming’, and ‘carbon capture’ — that are heavily promoted by the agribusiness sector to keep business as usual in place of food sovereignty and agroecology as a real solution. We also want to emphasize that any innovation has to be people centred – it should not use technology to undermine livelihoods, rights and nature, for the sake of consolidating corporate control and profits. 

This is why we strongly support the removal of multistakeholder initiatives from the official text and removing the annex altogether We urge you to show your commitment AGAINST the very perpetrators of harm in food systems and in vulnerable communities and Indigenous Peoples around the world.

We hope that moving forward, participation of Observers will continue to be a pillar of the Sharm El Sheikh workshops and negotiations on agriculture and food security – we have so much to offer to keep this process moving forward to our shared goals. 

We look forward to the SSJW creating a special space to address the fundamental issues faced by farmers and those whose livelihoods and food security are particularly vulnerable to climate change, especially women, youth, indigenous peoples and marginalised communities.

Keen to get the work started and for that reason we strongly suggest that the first workshop already takes place at COP29 this year . As Civil society we remain available to support these efforts. Thank you. 

COP29, Interventions, SB60

INTERVENTION BY GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE AT MEETING WITH UNFCCC EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

I thank my sister Mishy from Women and Gender Constituency for chairing this important session and Mr Executive Secretary for this space. I am Rachitaa Gupta from 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, and invite others to also disclose the same as they speak. We reiterate all the points made by our comrades in the rights based constituencies. We all know that this is a crucial COP since it is called “finance COP”. We hope to see ambitious public  finance commitments from the parties, especially the developed countries who have the historical responsibility. We echo the demands of our comrades and sisters from the women and gender constituency who have talked about the ongoing genocide in Palestine and shows the true priorities of the developed countries. These issues are deeply interlinked- there is no climate justice on occupied land, and these same actors are perpetuating both the climate crisis and the genocide and systemic violence happening around the world.

We also insist on more accountability from the rich countries to deliver on the commitments that they make here year after year. As you know Data compiled by the UNFCCC Secretariat shows that developed countries have fallen far short of their formal pledges to reduce deadly greenhouse gas emissions, fulfilling only about one-quarter of the cuts urged by scientists. There is also a strong attempt to bring in false solutions like carbon markets and speculative and untested technologies of geoengineering that are used as dangerous distractions from real emission cuts that need to happen urgently and immediately.

We strongly echo the demands from our comrades in ENGO CAN, WGC, YOUNGO, TUNGO, and IPO. Access to the UNFCCC and global climate policy space is critical for civil society. Collectively we represent millions of people in the Global South who are at the frontline of this crisis and are increasingly being left behind within this process. We cannot ignore the contrast between shrinking of meaningful space for rightsholder constituencies on one hand, and the vastly increasing power and influence of the polluting interests like the fossil fuel lobbyists over this process on the other hand. For us, enhancing observer engagement requires ensuring that that engagement does not come at the cost of introducing conflicting interests that risk the integrity of the very UNFCCC objectives and process, and that displace the lived experience and expertise of rights holders. We call on your support to convene a public, formal way for observers to engage in dedicated, constructive, deep dialogue with parties on this topic, and to take all possible measures to safeguard against the undue influence of polluting interests. 

And we call on you to strengthen the disclosure requirements instituted last year, in time for strengthened measures to come into place for COP29 registration. Specifically, we request that all observer participants be required to disclose who is funding their participation in talks before receiving theri registration. We strongly believe this lies within the remit of the secretariat, and is the type of bold action that is needed now. A type of boldness that has also been echoed by the UN Secretary General in his comments earlier this week. The world is looking to you to give a strong signal that this hall of climate action is not overrun with the very actors that have caused the climate crisis.