Next month, delegates will again convene to negotiate international efforts to curb climate change. The 29th Conference of the Parties is set to start on Monday, November 11, in the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku, located on a peninsula on the western shores of the Caspian Sea.
Major financial commitments for climate action will be up for discussion this year at what is billed as the Finance COP.
Just “blah blah blah?”
You’d be forgiven for feeling less than aflutter with optimism—we’ll touch on some of the reasons why—but we’re hopeful the result will amount to more than just “blah blah blah,” to borrow Greta Thunberg’s encapsulation of the lip service climate has received from many leaders over the years.
The upshot of last year’s COP 28 event in Dubai, though frustrating, was, after all, not nothing: Diplomats from nearly 200 nations signed off on language calling for “transitioning away from fossil fuels… in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” This was vexingly overdue, but it also represented a win at an event presided over by the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and attended by thousands of fossil fuel lobbyists.
Fossil influence
A similar backdrop seems to be taking shape for Baku, as the Guardian reports Azerbaijan’s state oil company and its partners are set to raise annual gas production by billions of cubic meters over the next decade. This is, er, problematic in a warming world that desperately needs to stop burning fossil fuels—let alone crank up further extraction.
And it’s hardly reassuring to note that, earlier this year, the nation’s president, Ilham Aliyev, told a climate conference, “having oil and gas deposits is not our fault. It’s a gift from God.” Or that running COP 29 will be up to a 26-year veteran of the same oil company, who is now the country’s ecology and natural resources minister, again per the Guardian.
Talks ongoing
Among the arguments Azerbaijan has mounted in its defense—not all of which we can cover here—it’s worth considering that, in the grand scheme of climate emissions, the total contribution to global heating from the nation of some 10 million people has been, if not precisely trifling, then hardly outsize. Countries that have contributed far more to the problem are in no position to heave stones.
It’s also worth noting that, given the urgent need for climate action on a global scale, no nation can afford to rest on the sidelines. The years-long negotiations may feel maddening in their inadequacy. Absent them, it’s hard to imagine things getting better.
