Call to block Azerbaijan president from talks
With negotiations seemingly bogged down in Baku, former France envoy and Cop28 adviser Paul Watkinson – writing on social media – has put forward a way of reinvigorating the talks.
He says the autocratic president of Azerbaijan since 2003, Ilham Aliyev must be kept away to allow negotiators to do their work.
And the precedent he cites to prove keeping embarrassing leaders out of the lime light can help. Cop26 in Glasgow when a certain Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson – then UK PM – was conspicuously absent for the second week of negotiations.
As Watkinson puts it:
The UK somehow managed to keep Boris Johnson and his gaffes away from Cop26 during the second week – that might be a good precedent for the COP29 presidency to follow in the coming days
Key events
Away from Cop29 talks my colleague Sandra Laville has an important story on how the corporations behind the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) have actually been produced huge amounts of new plastic in the past five years.
The AEPW was set up in 2019 by a group of companies which include ExxonMobil, Dow, Shell, TotalEnergies and ChevronPhillips, some of the world’s biggest producers of plastic. They promised to divert 15m tonnes of plastic waste from the environment in five years to the end of 2023, by improving collection and recycling, and creating a circular economy.
But new analysis by energy consultants Wood Mackenzie, obtained by Greenpeace’s Unearthed team and shared with the Guardian reveals the five companies alone produced 132m tonnes of two types of plastic; polyethylene (PE) and PP (polypropylene) in five years – more than 1,000 times the weight of the 118,500 tonnes of waste plastic the alliance has removed from the environment in the same period.
Earlier today I posted about an excellent piece colleagues at the Guardian have published tracking how Earth’s heating has led to rising sea levels and extreme weather – and yet there is no sign of emissions slowing.
Unfortunately I did not include a link to the piece [it was early UK time!] so here it is [and as I said original if negotiators at Cop need any motivation to reach a deal they could do worse than read this]
Damian Carrington
Update on text timings
Negotiators are into the last stretch of Cop29, which is when sleep becomes a luxury. The next texts are due at midnight tonight Baku time, says Yalchin Rafiyev, who is the Cop29 presidency’s lead negotiator. Draft texts and revisions are how Cops inch towards a deal, narrowing down options step-by-step to a final decision.
Rafiyev said the text on the all-important climate finance deal is set to drop at midnight Baku time. Texts on action to cut emissions (mitigation), increasing protection for communities against climate disasters (adaptation) and national climates pledges (NDCs) will also be published then, he said. He said the texts “would not have a huge number of options” and would be “shorter, more concise, straight to the point” compared with earlier versions, which were bloated by contrasting proposals from different countries.
Rafiyev also said that work was not taking place on a “cover text”, which is a broad statement often agreed at Cops to send a political message. He said the aim was to make agreements within the formal negotiating strands and not open a “new battlefront” between countries.
‘We must, must try’ – Maldives’ climate minister
Dharna Noor
The Maldives, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, is liable for just 0.003% of global emissions. But it is one of the first countries to endure the existential consequences of the climate crisis.
At Cop29, I caught up with Thoriq Ibrahim, the country’s minister of climate change, environment and energy, who is leading negotiations for the small island nation.
“We’re not causing climate change, it’s the developing countries that did that,” he said. “They did that to us, and we are not at all prepared.”
Cop29’s goal of adopting a new and expanded goal for climate finance to help vulnerable nations slash emissions and cope with climate disasters, is of particular importance to the Maldives. The last climate finance goal, adopted in 2009, did not allocate specific funding to small island developing states. Ibrahim says that must change.
“We must be allocated at least $39bn USD per year,” he said.
To ensure that money is accessible, he is also calling for the adoption of a multidimensional vulnerability index – a new way to measure countries’ climate need that considers not only their wealth, but also their vulnerability.
Last year, a “loss and damage fund” was created at Cop28 to help nations cope with irreversible climate damages. So far, wealthy countries’ contributions to that fund constitute a tiny fraction of what is needed.
It’s important for the Maldives to be able to access those monies quickly, said Ibrahim. His country could be completely swallowed by the rising seas by 2100 or sooner, research shows.
“Once our islands are destroyed, what do we have,” he asked. “We are in a special circumstance because of this major threat.”
At Cop29, Ibrahim is also demanding countries submit national climate action plans that are aligned with keeping global temperature rise less than 1.5C degrees higher than preindustrial temperatures. It’s a goal that many experts say has already been missed – or at best is on life support.
“Maybe we will go past that goal, overshoot it, and then bring the temperatures back down,” he said. “But the scientists say it’s possible to limit the warming, and so we must, must try.”
Call to block Azerbaijan president from talks
With negotiations seemingly bogged down in Baku, former France envoy and Cop28 adviser Paul Watkinson – writing on social media – has put forward a way of reinvigorating the talks.
He says the autocratic president of Azerbaijan since 2003, Ilham Aliyev must be kept away to allow negotiators to do their work.
And the precedent he cites to prove keeping embarrassing leaders out of the lime light can help. Cop26 in Glasgow when a certain Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson – then UK PM – was conspicuously absent for the second week of negotiations.
As Watkinson puts it:
The UK somehow managed to keep Boris Johnson and his gaffes away from Cop26 during the second week – that might be a good precedent for the COP29 presidency to follow in the coming days
Last week one of the main themes to come out of Cop29 was the need to reform the entire process. The impetus for that came after this piece in which a group of influential climate policy experts said the Cop system was no longer fit for purpose.
In response the Guardian has published a series of letters from readers debating the future of the summits.
Activists have been out at the conference in Baku this morning trying to put pressure on negotiators to agree a deal on climate finance.
Alliance of Champions calls on governments and financial institutions at COP29 to prioritise climate finance for food systems
An alliance of countries aiming to transform global food systems will reconvene today, one year after its launch at COP28, to highlight progress since Dubai and to urge governments and financial institutions at the conference in Baku to prioritise climate finance for food systems.
Co-chairs of the Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation Brazil, Norway and Sierra Leone, alongside founding members Cambodia and Rwanda, released an ACF Ministerial Statement, as well as a series of ‘Progress Snapshots’, highlighting key successes in each country and setting out priorities for further work.
“We need to see a rapid and sustained increase in both the overall quantum of climate finance and the proportion going towards transforming food systems, which are estimated to require $500 billion per year over the next decade,” the statement said. “Despite being responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions, 90% of deforestation and 60% of biodiversity loss, Food systems received just 3.4% of the total $115.9bn climate finance mobilised by developed countries in 2022.
The snapshots, which showcase progress from across the ACF member countries since launch, include:
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In Brazil, a National Program for Productive Forests (Programa Nacional de Florestas Produtivas) to promote sustainable agroforestry practices, enhance food production, generate employment, and restore degraded areas. The program’s initial phase targets the state of Pará and supports Brazil’s wider commitments to restore 12 million hectares by 2030 and create up to 2.5 million jobs.
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In Cambodia, the deployment of 1,600 agriculture officers in agricultural communes across the country, developing modern agricultural cooperatives to improve access to markets, capital and water, whilst also increasing the economic efficiency and sustainability of smallholders;
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In Norway, an annual policy dialogue with farming unions to negotiate policy measures that are tailored to farmers’ needs, delivering a ‘bottom up’ participatory approach that is designed to deliver against the country’s national and international commitments;
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In Rwanda, a commitment by 2030 to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer levels and to reduce food losses in farm production and along supply chains, including post-harvest losses.
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In Sierra Leone, the implementation of the national flagship ‘Feed Salone’ strategy is sustainably driving local food production by making agriculture more competitive for investment, decreasing food imports and supporting smallholder farmers, especially women and youth.
Alliance called on other governments to join them.
“Today, we are also calling for governments who share our ambition to create a fairer, healthier and more prosperous future to join us. The actions that each of us take within our borders can enhance our peoples’ food and nutritional security, boost equity and livelihoods, increase climate resilience, protect and restore nature, and help mitigate climate breakdown.”
In response to this ask, Tanzania has officially announced today its intention to join the ACF and is set to become the newest member of the coalition.
H.E. Paulo Teixeira, Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Farming, Brazil, and co-chair of ACF, said: “As Brazil looks towards COP30 next year, I am proud to be part of this important Alliance which continues to make the case for fairer, more sustainable food systems. Whether it is tackling hunger, supporting family farmers to produce nutritious food sustainably, driving the agro-ecological transition or protecting the rainforest, we can only improve outcomes in the long run if we look at the system holistically. To do that, we must address the climate finance gap for food systems at COP29”.
As we wait for day nine to get going it is worth looking back at the closing summary from yesterday when the overriding feeling from negotiators was frustration as progress continued to prove elusive. Let’s hope for more positive news today.
Yesterday’s closing summary:
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As day eight began, the climate talks entered the phase known as the ‘valley of death’
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Raising funds to finance climate fight is feasible, economists say from my colleague Fiona Harvey
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Cop was boosted as G20 reaffirms transition from fossil fuels, although some felt the Brazil meeting could have gone much further
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Analysis showed that hundreds of lobbyists for industrial agriculture were attending the Cop29 climate summit in Baku
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UK, New Zealand, and Colombia join coalition to phase out fossil fuel subsidies
Patrick Greenfield
Argentina to stay in the Paris agreement – foreign minister
It’s day nine at the Cop29 talks in Baku and the swarms of delegates have started to thin. The morning queues are not as long. Tired negotiators have been working late into the night as the climate summit builds to a crescendo.
One delegation that will not be in the room for the end of Cop29 is Argentina who withdrew their representatives after just three days. The South American country, led by the climate denier Javier Milei, had said it was contemplating leaving the Paris agreement after it made the decision. There have been rumours that the country was set to announce its departure within days, particularly when Milei became the first world leader to meet Donald Trump since his reelection.
But now, the country’s foreign minister Gerardo Werthein has said they are staying. Speaking to El Observador, he said that the country was simply reevaluating its position given that they disagreed with parts of the Paris agreement. But Argentina will not leave the accord, he said.
Last week, observers privately wondered if the chainsaw-wielding libertarian had simply been showing off to get attention from his fans abroad. Milei – one of the most prolific world leaders on X – has been reposting memes hinting that he was minded to block the mention of climate change in G20 declarations but ultimately did not.
Last week’s decision to remove its representatives has started to have consequences for delegates from civil society who sometimes get their accreditation from their home countries.
Tais Gadea Lara, a climate reporter from Argentina, posted photos on social media of civil society representatives who had their access cancelled due to Argentina’s withdrawal from Cop29. Other delegations are helping them out, she reports, but it is a reminder of the vast network of people that come to these summits all working towards the same thing.
Good morning. Day nine at Cop29 and we’ll be following all the developments here. I’m Matthew Taylor, please send me your thoughts and suggestions at [email protected]
