Hi John,
The COP29 global climate summit concluded over the weekend with a pitiful climate finance goal, and failed to build on last year’s commitment to transition global energy systems away from fossil fuels. It adds up to a devastating outcome for climate-vulnerable communities fighting for their very survival.
We’ve summed up five things you need to know about this year’s COP, what went wrong and what we can do next. One of the most important next steps, however, is to strengthen the call for a Fossil Fuel Treaty, that can work more quickly and fairly than COP currently can to end the climate crisis – can you support our call?
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1. A pitifully unjust agreement on climate finance
This year was a big one for climate finance. Countries needed to use COP29 to agree a new collective global goal for financial support to climate-vulnerable countries in the global south – and that meant the rich world, including the UK, the EU and the US, pledging to pay their fair share.
But the goal agreed at COP29 was peanuts compared to what the global south needs and the scale of what is available if we make polluters pay. The $300 billion headline figure was a long way short of the trillions required every year. There was also no guarantee that it wouldn’t be in the form of loans, despite countries across the global south already suffering from a debt crisis.
The wording of the agreement means countries will also be forced to turn to private finance for much of the remaining funds required. But we know that polluting greenwashers can’t be trusted with the lives and futures of billions of people.
The climate is fast becoming a graveyard, littered with big oil’s broken promises. Trillions of dollars of public money is required, and we know where governments can get it: from the pockets of the wealthy and the profits of mega-corporations who have themselves made trillions causing the climate crisis.
2. No progress on a fossil fuel phase-out
Devastatingly, this year’s agreement failed to build on COP28’s call for a global energy transition away from fossil fuels. Last year’s resolution, full of loopholes to begin with, was hard-won by climate-vulnerable countries; it is shameful that further detail on how it will happen was deferred to COP30 after resistance from countries like Saudi Arabia.
COP is an important space where many vital negotiations will continue to take place. But this blow to progress is a damning indictment of its consensus system, where all parties must agree to every word of its final agreement. If we want to move from diplomatic stand-offs to the transformational change we need, COP cannot be the beginning and end of global climate action.
3. COP29 was full of fossil fuel lobbyists
Once again, research showed that fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered almost every country delegation at COP. That’s right – this blatantly toxic and profiteering industry has more seats at the table than the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world.
This has to stop. We need to kick big polluters out of COP, and focus on building new spaces to negotiate the end of the fossil fuel era that aren’t mired in industry influence.
4. The UK’s emissions pledge was a step forward
Despite all this, one positive was the shift in the UK government’s approach to COP. While the UK failed to make a significant climate finance commitment, Keir Starmer somewhat restored the UK’s standing by making a new commitment to reducing the UK’s emissions that’s in line with the UK Climate Change Committee’s recommendation of 81% cuts by 2035. Compared to Rishi Sunak’s lacklustre approach, it was refreshing change.
The scale of the climate crisis requires more than diplomatic tinkering around the edges, however. We now need to push our government to make major transformations to achieve the existing 2030 target, which is off-track, as well as the new 2035 goal. And it must fight for these emissions reductions to be achieved via a just energy transition – for workers and communities in the UK and around the world – to renewable energy.
5. We need a Fossil Fuel Treaty
International cooperation is vital to ending the climate crisis. But it’s no surprise that the COP process is failing to produce the results we need when it is full of industry lobbyists and hampered by fossil fuel producers having a veto.
This is why we need a Fossil Fuel Treaty – so we can have a space that can work more quickly and fairly than COP currently can to accelerate the cooperation necessary to end the fossil fuel era. Crucially, this system wouldn’t need every country on board to make a difference. The UK could make a major impact though, and with a government that is half-listening to the climate crisis in office, now is the time to demand it. Can you join our call on the prime minister to back the treaty?
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Despite the setback of COP29, the international climate fight continues. We’ll spend the next year pushing the UK to go further for global climate justice – including through a global treaty to take on the fossil fuel industry and stop its toxic activities once and for all.
I hope you will join us.
Izzie McIntosh
Campaigns and Policy Manager
[1] Fossil fuel lobbyists eclipse delegations from most climate vulnerable nations at COP29 climate talks, Kick Big Polluters Out, https://kickbigpollutersout.org/COP29FossilFuelLobbyists.
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