In a letter on Tuesday addressed to about 200 states and different organisations resulting from take part within the annual summit in capital metropolis Baku, COP29 president-designate Mukhtar Babayev highlighted a fund that shall be made up of voluntary contributions, to “catalyse the private and non-private sectors throughout mitigation, adaptation, and analysis and growth”.
Referred to as the Local weather Finance Motion Fund, it is among the initiatives that the presidency is pushing for. The fund, unveiled earlier in July, is supposed to complement efforts to set a brand new monetary goal – the New Collective Quantified Aim (NCQG) – below the Paris Settlement to assist growing nations of their local weather actions by 2025.
Azerbaijan is because of announce its personal contributions to the fund, which was not detailed within the letter.
Aside from the fund, Babayev, within the letter, stated he’s spearheading a second local weather financing instrument known as The Baku Initiative for Local weather Finance, Funding and Commerce, that focuses on inexperienced investments.
Vitality storage and grids, in addition to methane discount had been additionally a part of the precedence gadgets he listed within the “motion agenda”, whereas observers notice that point out of the gradual finish of fossil gasoline use in power techniques – a part of an settlement to final yr’s landmark pact in Dubai – was conspicuously lacking.
The burning of fossil fuels is the one greatest contributor to local weather change.
“
The initiatives omit any reference to the phase-out of and even the gradual transition away from fossil fuels. As a substitute, it centres round a fund that advantages the fossil gasoline trade.
Andreas Sieber, coverage and campaigns affiliate director, 350.org
“The initiatives omit any reference to the phase-out of and even the gradual transition away from fossil fuels. As a substitute, it centres round a fund that advantages the fossil gasoline trade,” stated Andreas Sieber, coverage and campaigns affiliate director at nonprofit 350.org.
“The Azerbaijan COP presidency is sending a message that the door is huge open for oil and fuel offers for steady exploitation of the planet and probably the most weak communities.”
Greenwashing at COP29?
Within the letter, Babayev, who can also be the minister of ecology in Azerbaijan and a former vice-president at state-owned oil and fuel firm Socar, highlighted priorities corresponding to a sixfold enhance in battery storage capability, growth and strengthening of grid networks and cuts in emissions from methane.
A “COP truce”, from seven days earlier than to seven days after the summit, was additionally proposed by Babayev, because the gathering in Baku takes place towards a backdrop of conflict in Gaza and in Ukraine.
Babayev’s message famous that the agenda “confronts the world’s most urgent local weather issues, shines a lightweight on forgotten priorities, and offers a spotlight for huge universe of actors to return collectively”.
“It additionally displays Azerbaijan’s personal capabilities and distinctive contributions to the combat towards local weather change…It represents an formidable effort by the COP29 presidency to drive motion throughout all local weather pillars and covers a variety of key priorities, corresponding to power, finance, agriculture, cities, human growth, and the climate-peace nexus, amongst others,” the letter learn.
The COP29 motion agenda letter was despatched 4 days after the primary three local weather convention sponsors had been revealed, together with Socar Inexperienced, a subsidiary of Azerbaijan’s nationwide oil firm.
State-owned Socar ranks one of many lowest amongst oil and fuel corporations on this planet when it comes to its local weather credentials, in response to nonprofit World Benchmarking Alliance’s report final yr. Out of 99 companies, its researchers put Socar within the 91st spot.
The creation of Socar Inexperienced was introduced a number of weeks after the nation was appointed as COP host in December, fuelling suspicions of greenwash. Though the oil agency’s subsidiary guarantees investments in photo voltaic and wind tasks, inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing, and carbon seize and storage, the primary firm itself has no clear power transition plan.
Socar additionally has no emission discount targets and no dedication to assist human rights though it has a “low-carbon growth technique” aimed toward lowering methane emissions from its pure fuel amenities, primarily based on its newest firm report.
“Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency is elevating critical considerations of whether or not it’s actually dedicated to the power transition,” stated Sieber.
“By asserting Socar’s greenwashing arm as a key sponsor of COP29 and rolling out 14 initiatives that conspicuously keep away from any point out of fossil fuels and sideline the tripling of renewable power, Azerbaijan demonstrates ignorance and a scarcity of management,” he stated.
