Why I’m going to COP29
Hi everyone,
Anjali here from the Climate Emergency Unit. Exciting news: this week I'll be heading to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The UN climate convention takes place each year in a different country on a different continent, and this year Azerbaijan will host the convention. This is a complicated and controversial situation, given that Azerbaijan just last year carried out a mass campaign of ethnic cleansing of Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh region, breaking apart the Republic of Artsakh, in a continuation of over a hundred years of Armenian persecution, oppression and genocide.
To this day, the Azerbaijan government refuses to formally acknowledge the Armenian genocide, a recognition that 34 countries, including Canada, have made.
Much of the success of Azerbaijan in building its military and diplomatic power came from its large petroleum reserves, which have benefitted countries like the U.S., Israel and Turkey and kept them as key allies. Here we see the unholy alliance of the fossil fuel economy and the military industrial machine, a perfect illustration of how our fight for climate justice must be rooted in solidarity with all oppressed peoples. Hosting a UN conference on climate change in a petrostate with such recent human rights violations is problematic of course, and many groups around the world have called for a boycott of COP29 for these reasons.
Here's why we chose to attend COP29 this year and what we commit to do in light of this decision:
For the past year I've been building a cross-Canada coalition on 'Canada's Fair Share', which is the idea that Canada's contributions to the international community in the form of climate finance, reparations and other supports to developing countries are crucial if we're going to win on climate. Canada is one of the wealthiest nations on earth, made richer by our massive fossil fuel economy, and we've helped accelerate climate change around the world, disproportionately affecting the world's poorest. We owe billions to the Global South, and it's not a matter of charity, it's a matter of justice. We need to do our fair share, and we need to pay up.
COP29 is known as "the finance COP" because it's the year in which countries of the world will negotiate a new collective goal on climate finance. Given our work in this area, it's important that we show up with our colleagues from other parts of Canada and around the world to cooperate on pushing our governments to make the strongest possible commitment on finance. Industry will certainly be at the table pushing hard, and we need to push back even harder. This COP could have resounding implications that will affect the pace and effectiveness of the global energy transition for years to come. It's an absolutely crucial time for climate finance, and I'm looking forward to working with comrades to push the needle on that in Baku this year.
Despite how important it is to work with other groups around the world to counter the fossil fuel industry, it’s hard to ignore the structural issues within the COP system. Prominent leaders recently echoed a long-standing call for COP reform, citing the unacceptable presence of industry a these talks (the Canadian government alone gave badges to 28 fossil fuel lobbyists!), lack of accessibility, greenwashing, and other concerns. This is important to consider for our future participation in these conventions.
A couple of weeks ago we hosted a virtual summit called 'Canada's Fair Share', a conference on global climate equity. We heard from many of you that you want to engage on these issues, and find inroads into building power and pushing our governments to be better when it comes to our international presence on climate. At COP this year, we will bring you more analysis, real-time updates, and opportunities to engage.
And while we're in Baku, we want to visibilize the ongoing resistance of the Armenian people. Here’s a link to a post by Learn for Artsakh, a digital archive centering Armenian voices. Check out their site for more resources, further reading and ways to take action.
These issues feel huge, and it's hard to think of them as being within our control, but at the Climate Emergency Unit we firmly believe that people power is capable of anything, and it's our responsibility to help open pathways to true emergency-level climate action.
We hope that our work in Baku will move us closer to Canada's fair share, and we invite you to take this journey with us.
Follow along for daily updates on Climate Emergency Unit’s social media (linked below) and newsletter, as well as the brand new Fair Shares newsletter.
See you there!
~ Anjali Appadurai
