From words to deeds
Azerbaijan’s economy is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. As the host of COP29, will it shift towards renewable energy and improve its human rights reputation?
From words to deeds
By Cecile Wilson
[Atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa, Hawaii on 31st October 2024: 423.70]
The 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) on climate change is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan from November 11 to 22. Some are calling it the “finance COP” because one goal is to secure sufficient, mandatory and enforceable financing for a loss-and-damage fund. Underlying this goal are global issues of human rights, equity and corporate and governmental responsibility.
Loss and damage
The purpose of the loss-and-damage fund is to help developing countries deal with extreme weather events such as floods and wildfires and with the long-term consequences of climate destabilization such as drought, desertification and rising sea levels. If we stay on our current trajectory, we are headed for a “catastrophic” rise in temperature of 3.1°C and ever more costly outcomes.
The United Nations Emissions Gap Report stated that the G20 countries (minus the African Union) were responsible for 77 per cent of global emissions in 2023. Although Canada’s total emissions are much less than those of economic powerhouses like the U.S. and China, we rank among the top 12 nations for per-capita emissions. By contrast, the least developed countries only contributed three per cent of emissions, and the 55 countries of the African Union contributed five per cent. Yet between 1970 and 2021, Africans suffered 35 per cent of weather and climate-related fatalities.
To make matters worse, nations most at risk of climate catastrophe often have the least capacity to pay for the impacts. Between one and four trillion U.S. dollars are needed annually to deal with climate disaster outcomes. That figure does not include the cost of implementing renewable-energy generation and transitioning away from fossil fuels. If there is no provision to support these countries in rebuilding housing, agriculture, transportation and other infrastructure, people will need to move to other locales or face life-threatening situations. Such situations have widespread implications for global security and unrest, as well as causing more human misery.
Although a loss-and-damage fund was instituted in 2022 at COP27, and some developed countries pledged money for the fund in 2023 at COP28, the amount allocated has been woefully inadequate. What is needed is a mechanism that will make contributions to the fund transparent and automatic instead of voluntary.
Polluter pay
It is well-established that burning fossil fuels is the primary driver of climate destabilization. Nevertheless, several fossil-fuel companies have recently walked back their emissions-reduction targets at the same time as they are making huge profits. Canada’s biggest oil and gas companies, for example, had profits totalling $38 billion in 2022. It is only fair that some of the profits are contributed to the loss-and-damage fund.
One payment option could be to require the fossil-fuel industry to pay levies. This type of industry-pay mechanism already exists in maritime shipping to pay for the cleaning up oil spills.
Another source of revenue could come from fossil-fuel subsidies. In 2022, they totalled seven trillion dollars U.S. globally; Canada paid out more than $20 billion Canadian. Shifting a trillion U.S. globally from fossil-fuel subsidies to the loss-and-damage fund would go a long way towards reducing the human misery brought on by climate change.
We are at climate and social tipping points
Last year’s COP was the first to specifically state the need to “transition” away from fossil fuels and towards a more sustainable energy economy. We have a choice. We can continue on our current trajectory and blow past a 1.5-degree increase in temperature, ensuring that climate disasters and their human and economic costs worsen steadily, or we can cut our global emissions by 42 per cent of 2019 levels by 2030.
What happens this month in COP29 will set the stage for new national climate plans (known as Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs) due in February next year. Can Azerbaijan, a petrostate – facing accusations of human rights violations and corruption as it plans to expand its fossil fuel production – facilitate movement towards transparent and effective climate action? One thing is sure: All attending nations need to accept their own responsibility for protecting people and the planet.
What you can do
Email or call MP Yasir Naqvi and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and tell them you want polluters to pay for the damage they cause.
Cecile Wilson has lived in the Glebe for more than two decades and has a background in geography and Critical Discourse Analysis.
