SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
cop28
Greta Thunberg Won't Attend UN Climate Talks in 'Yet Another Authoritarian Petrol State'
"We can't legitimize COP meetings in their current form," Thunberg said. "The last three years, they've taken place in authoritarian regimes, and holding them in such places leads nowhere."
Nov 05, 2024
When national delegates and civil society representatives gather in Baku, Azerbaijan next week for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, one prominent climate voice will not be among them—Greta Thunberg.
The 21-year-old Swedish activist said she would not attend COP29 due to Azerbaijan's authoritarian record and reliance on fossil fuels, and criticized the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for naming it as a host.
"It is extreme hypocrisy of the UNFCCC to let yet another authoritarian petrol state host the COP," Thunberg said in a video posted on social media.
Thunberg expressed concerns about Azerbaijan's record of stifling internal dissent as well as its ethnic cleansing of Armenians. The U.N. summit comes a little over a year after Azerbaijani forces entered the disputed, ethnic Armenian-controlled territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, prompting most ethnic Armenians in the area to flee across the border to Armenia. Armenia told the International Court of Justice in April that Azerbaijan had "completed" ethnic cleansing in the territory and was "erasing all traces of ethnic Armenians' presence" there.
At the same time, Thunberg added her voice to the many environmental advocates who have called out Azerbaijan for planning to expand its fossil fuel production. Azerbaijan's selection was especially controversial because it came on the heels of the United Arab Emirates' hosting of COP28, which also prompted backlash due to the country's human rights record and reliance on oil and gas. Both COPs also came under fire for selecting presidents with close ties to state-run oil companies.
"It is a slap in the face to all the people who are suffering from the climate emergency and from the repression and oppression of the Azerbaijani regime," Thunberg said.
"Climate activism and human rights are united."
There is another reason that Thunberg cannot attend COP29: It has a closed land border, which means that people can only enter the country by plane, something Thunberg has vowed not to do for climate reasons.
"The population in Azerbaijan is trapped. They can't travel in or out of the country except through the airport. Even if I could go there, I wouldn't. I don't want to legitimize the regime," Thunberg toldBlankspot.
Instead, she is traveling through Europe ahead of COP29, coming as close as possible to Azerbaijan. Currently, she is in Georgia where people are in the streets protesting a parliamentary election they say was rigged by the ruling party with help from Russia. After COP29 starts, she plans to continue on to Armenia.
During COP29, she will meet with Azerbaijani activists who are not in the country, as well as activists from Georgia and Armenia.
She told Blackspot that one purpose of her trip is to "highlight that we can't legitimize COP meetings in their current form. The last three years, they've taken place in authoritarian regimes, and holding them in such places leads nowhere."
More broadly, she also aims to foreground the relationship between the climate crisis and human rights.
"In countries like Sweden, many people are surprised when you talk about how climate activism, the LGBTQ movement, and human rights are interconnected," she said. "But in countries where people face repression and rights violations every day, activists see a clearer connection."
"Of course, we can't talk about the climate until our fundamental human rights are met," Thunberg continued. "'We can't talk about the climate if we can't go out on the street and hold a sign,' they say. Unfortunately, the climate crisis is extremely urgent, so it has to happen simultaneously. Climate activism and human rights are united."
Thunberg's remarks come as there has been an increasing crackdown on climate and other forms of nonviolent protest, including in so-called democratic countries. In its most recent report on the killing of environmental defenders, Global Witness observed that countries like the U.S., U.K., and E.U. member states had continued to criminalize climate protesters in 2023, with new laws targeting dissent and dolling out harsh penalties for common protest tactics.
"Nonviolent, nondestructive climate protest is increasingly being subjected to criminal prosecution, while punishments are being ratcheted up to levels befitting violent and far more serious crimes," author Stan Cox observed in October.
As for the outcome of COP29 itself, Thunberg does not hold high expectations.
"The only thing that will come out of it is loopholes, more negotiations, and symbolic decisions that look good on paper but are really just greenwashing," Thunberg said.
However, she maintained faith in the importance of speaking out on climate and other issues.
"Every time those in power get a chance to act, they choose not to and instead listen to industries that destroy the planet and violate human rights, rather than doing what's right," Thunberg said. " I want to spread awareness, focus on grassroots activism, and support those who are trying to make a difference."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Company That Tracks Methane Leaks Says Crisis Worse 'Than Ever Before'
The CEO of methane-tracking company GHGSat said that company satellites had detected around 20,000 oil and gas operations, coal mines, and landfills that spewed massive amounts methane since the end of 2023.
Nov 01, 2024
The number of methane "super-emitters" detected by a satellite company has surged by approximately one-third over the past year, despite pledges from fossil fuel companies to reduce their emissions of the highly potent greenhouse gas.
Stephane Germain, the CEO of methane-tracking company GHGSat, toldThe Associated Press on Thursday that company satellites had detected around 20,000 oil and gas operations, coal mines, and landfills that spewed 220 pounds of methane per hour since the end of 2023—up from around 15,000 the year before.
"The past year, we've detected more emissions than ever before," Germain said, adding that existing data on methane emissions is only "scratching the surface" of the reality.
"The only safe and effective way to 'clean up' fossil fuel pollution is to phase out fossil fuels."
GHGSat's data covers the period since 50 fossil fuel companies pledged to end flaring and reduce methane emissions from their operations to "near zero" by 2030 at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP28, in Dubai.
At the time, more than 320 civil society organizations criticized the pledge and other voluntary commitments as a "dangerous distraction."
"The only safe and effective way to 'clean up' fossil fuel pollution is to phase out fossil fuels," the groups wrote in an open letter. "Methane emissions and gas flaring are symptoms of a more than century-long legacy of wasteful, destructive practices that are routine in the oil and gas industry as it pursues massive profits without regard for the consequences."
"That the industry, at this crucial moment in the climate emergency, is offering to clean up its mess around the edges in lieu of the rapid oil and gas phaseout that is needed is an insult to the billions impacted both by climate change and the industry's appalling legacy of pollution and community health impacts," they continued.
Yet now it seems as if the industry isn't even attempting to clean up its mess around the edges.
Germain, who is sharing his company's data ahead of the next round of climate talks at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, said that nearly half of the methane super-emitters GHGSat detected were oil-and-gas related. Another third were landfills or waste facilities, and 16% from mining. Geographically, most of the super-emitting sites are in North America and Eurasia.
The data comes amid growing concerns about the extent of methane emissions and how they threaten efforts to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas pollution this decade and limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide—with about 80 times its heat-trapping potential over its first 20 years in the atmosphere—but it also dissipates much more quickly. This means that curbing methane emissions could be an effective near-term part of halting temperature rise.
However, a series of studies published this year show these emissions moving in the wrong direction. A Nature analysis concluded in March that U.S. oil and gas operations were emitting around three times the methane that the U.S. government thought. A Frontiers of Science paper in July found that the growth rate of atmospheric methane concentrations had seen an "abrupt and rapid increase" in the early 2020s, due largely to the fossil fuel industry as well as releases from tropical wetlands.
The danger of methane emissions is one reason that the climate movement has mobilized to stop the buildout of liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure, as methane routinely leaks in the process of drilling for and transporting the fuel. A September study found that, despite industry claims it could act as a bridge fuel, LNG actually has a 33%. greater greenhouse gas footprint than coal when its entire lifecycle is taken into account.
The fate of the LNG buildout, at least in the U.S., could be decided by the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. The Biden-Harris administration paused the approval of new LNG exports while the Department of Energy considers the latest climate science. While a Trump-appointed judge then halted the pause, this does not actually stop the DOE from continuing its analysis. A second Trump administration, however, would be almost guaranteed not look further into the risk of methane emissions before it approves more LNG exports. Former President Donald Trump has promised to "drill, baby, drill" and offered a policy wishlist to fossil fuel executives who back his campaign.
A document leaked in October showed that a major oil and gas trade association had drafted plans for a second Trump administration, including ending Biden administration regulations to curb methane emissions, such as an emissions fee.
As Mattea Mrkusic, a senior energy transition policy lead at Evergreen Action, warned, "Under Trump, we could double down on even more dirty fossil fuel infrastructure that'll lock us into harmful pollution for decades to come."
Keep ReadingShow Less
UN 'Pact for the Future' Decried for Not Even Including the Words 'Fossil Fuels'
Nearly 80 world leaders and Nobel laureates say the 'Pact for the Future' will be deeply flawed if it ignores the key driver of the planetary crisis.
Aug 13, 2024
A group of 77 former world leaders, Nobel laureates, and scientists on Tuesday called on United Nations member countries to reintroduce into an upcoming treaty, the Pact for the Future, a strong commitment to transitioning away from fossil fuels.
The Pact for the Future has been under negotiation by U.N. member nations this year and is expected to be signed at a special meeting in September called the Summit of the Future.
The initial draft of the agreement, from January, included language fairly similar to that which nearly 200 U.N. nations agreed to at last year's COP28 climate summit in Dubai, calling on countries to "accelerat[e] the transition away from fossil fuels." The first draft also included a commitment to setting a deadline to end fossil fuel subsidies.
However, subsequent versions have not included any reference to fossil fuels, the burning of which is the main cause of the climate emergency, due to the greenhouse gases emitted. In response, the 77 leading figures have published a letter supported by the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.
"The omission of fossil fuels from the draft Pact for the Future is another stark failure to confront one of the greatest threats to our planet and humanity."
The signatories include Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner and chief adviser in Bangladesh's new interim government; Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland; the Dalai Lama; and Stefan Löfven, the former prime minister of Sweden.
The authors of the letter wrote that they are "gravely concerned" about the watering down of the agreement.
"We call on the United Nations to ensure that the Pact for the Future includes robust commitments to manage and finance a fast and fair global transition away from coal, oil, and gas extraction in line with the 1.5ºC limit agreed to by nations in the Paris Agreement," they wrote.
"If the Summit of the Future does not address the threat of fossil fuels, it will not be worthy of its name, risking undermining a once-in-a-century opportunity to restore trust in the power of international cooperation," they added.
Jody Williams, a human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who signed the letter, said in a statement that "unless fossil fuels are tackled, there is no future to safeguard."
Löfven, who led Sweden from 2014 until 2021 and is now head of the Party of European Socialists, a coalition of center-left parties from around Europe, also spoke forcefully about the need for a stronger international agreement.
"The omission of fossil fuels from the draft Pact for the Future is another stark failure to confront one of the greatest threats to our planet and humanity, " he said. "World leaders should be unequivocal when it comes to acting decisively and collectively to prevent further climate impacts, and instead, they are deciding to bury their heads in the sand."
"Only through unwavering international cooperation to phase out fossil fuels can we safeguard our common future," he added.
The pact is not exclusive to climate issues but covers five areas: sustainable development; peace and security; science and technology; youth and future generations; and transforming global governance, including international financial architecture reform.
The first draft of the pact released in January, despite its mention of fossil fuels, was "somewhat unambitious," according to Tim Hirschel-Burns, a policy liaison at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. The draft didn't contain many concrete, binding proposals, he wrote on the center's website in April.
Hirschel-Burns called for the treaty to include language that would give more voting power to Global South countries at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and an end to the gentleman's agreement that places a European in control of the former institution and an American the latter. Some language regarding Global South representation at those financial institutions was included in the newest draft of the pact.
In May, Human Rights Watch called for a strong pact that prioritized economic justice and the environment. HRW asserted that civil society organizations hadn't been consulted enough and that China, Russia, Cuba, and Iran had sought to weaken the human rights provisions in the agreement. However, the group was also critical of Western countries, saying that "their selective application of human rights undermines the credibility of such an agenda, particularly for countries in the Global South."
"While the United States and other Western countries justifiably condemn Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine, for example, many of them have not shown the same resolve concerning Israel's atrocities in Gaza," the HRW statement said. "While the European Union says it champions human rights protection globally, it opposes efforts at the U.N. to make the international tax system fairer for developing countries."
The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, which published Tuesday's letter, leads an effort to establish an international agreement in which full transparency is developed over fossil fuel reserves so that countries can successfully negotiate a phaseout of their use. A huge number of government entities and global organizations have endorsed the idea, but only 13 countries have signed on so far.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular