COP is no longer meeting its goals and change is needed, climate leaders say | climate

A group of former leaders and experts campaigning against climate change released an open letter this Friday in which they announced that the annual United Nations conference would: The climate is no longer fit for purpose and reform is needed. The group contains electrons. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonFormer Irish President Mary Robinson, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, and renowned climate scientist Johan Rockstrom.

About 200 countries are gathered here. COP29The United Nations climate summit is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan, with the main objective of reaching agreement on new targets for the amount of funding available to help developing countries adapt to climate change and recover from adverse weather events.

On the first day, delegates debated for hours to agree on an agenda. Negotiations to date New Quantified Collective Goals (NCQG)One of the most anticipated outcomes of the conference (English acronym) has made little progress.

Not fit for purpose

The letter, signed by more than 20 experts, former leaders and scientists, and addressed to all parties to the climate change convention, including Simon Stiell, secretary-general of the convention, and António Guterres, UN secretary-general, has been made public. This Friday, it was stated that although much progress had been made during the ongoing Conference of the Parties (COP), a review was needed.

“It is now clear that COP is no longer fit for purpose. “Current structures are unable to produce the exponential pace and scale of change necessary to ensure a safe climate zone for humanity,” said the report, which sets out seven specific proposals for procedural changes to strengthen the conference’s credibility and effectiveness. Here is the letter. It is held within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“This motivates our call for a fundamental review of the COP. “We must replace negotiations with implementation so that the COP can deliver on its agreed commitments and ensure an urgent energy transition and phase-out of fossil energy.”

The open letter on COP reform is promoted by Earth4All, a collective of economic thinkers, scientists and advocates. Hosted by Rome ClubBI Norwegian Business School, Potsdam Climate Impact Institute and Stockholm Resilience Centre.

criticism from all sides

Within hours of the letter’s publication, subscribers sent comments explaining that some of the letter’s ideas had been misinterpreted. “The COP process is an essential and irreplaceable means of supporting the multilateral, multi-sectoral and systemic change we urgently need. Now more than ever,” they wrote in a statement.

“We are committed allies and advocates for this process. And we offer our full support to the positive efforts underway to further strengthen them in the new era of implementation we are entering,” they continue. “We need COP29 to provide leadership to our people. , communities and businesses urgently want and need it.”

Criticism of the COP process is not new and was strongly present during COP29 in Baku. Earlier this week, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called for urgent reforms. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama also spoke about leaders being photographed sitting on sofas while summit speeches were broadcast on muted TV screens.

Asked about the Charter and the global process, Yalchin Rafiyev, representative of the COP29 Presidency, said: “This process has already delivered results, reducing predicted warming and providing funding to those most in need, which is better than any alternative. .” But he acknowledged that the multilateral process was under pressure and that COP29 would be “a litmus test for the global climate architecture.” with agency