The issue of climate crisis affecting the continent of Africa and the rest of the globe has taken a new dimension with climate activists from Africa and others have made a case for the payment of reparation to the tune of $5 trillion amongst other surcharges from polluter countries.
This was the hotly debated issue at the just concluded COP29 United Nations climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, where Africa Make Big Polluters Pay (MBPP) coalition in collaboration with the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), Eurodadd, Latindadd, Debt Justice UK and Recourse, are pushing the frontiers of climate redemption for adversely affected continent.
The Africa Make Big Polluters Pay (MBPP) Coalition comprising Nigerian and other African groups have condemned the presence of no fewer than 1773 fossil fuel lobbyists at the COP29 summit in Baku, warning that it is a barrier to climate justice for communities most affected by the climate crisis caused by the Global North and corporate interests.
Specifically, the groups, in addition to a demand for $5 trillion a year as a reparation down payment from polluter countries, also want help for victim countries to cut greenhouse e gases and cope with the impacts of extreme weather.
Their demands contrast with a resurging proposal from the rich countries of the Global North for debt swaps for climate change victim nations and communities.
While the polluters present debt swaps as a dual solution for debt and climate issues, debt swaps fall short in practice and pose risks that threaten to harm Global South countries and communities.
Chanting solidarity songs and waving banners and flags with slogans such as “Make Big Polluters Pay”, “Cancel the debt”, and “No to loans as climate finance”, the activists rejected debt swaps, saying the Global South needs urgent debt cancellation and grant-based climate finance.
“Debt swaps do not significantly reduce debt levels and can undermine our local communities. They may even legitimise illegitimate debts that burden our populations. Instead of relying on these risky mechanisms, we urgently need comprehensive debt cancellation and grant-based climate finance that truly empowers our nations and addresses the climate crisis head-on. It is time for rich countries to fulfil their commitments and support us with the resources we need to protect our environment and secure a sustainable future for all,” said Hilda Nakabuye of Fridays For Future, Uganda.
Olamide Martins Ogunlade of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) in Nigeria, is also on the same page.
According to him, “While leaders at COP29 talk in circles, the people of the Global South are suffocating under unjust debt while paying the price for a crisis they didn’t create. There is no climate justice without debt justice. Join us in making this clear to the world.”
A vast number of fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access to the COP as part of a trade association. Eight of the top 10 trade groups with the most lobbyists came from the Global North. The largest was the International Emissions Trading Association, who brought 43 people, including representatives from Big Polluters TotalEnergies and Glencore.
Japan brought coal giant Sumitomo as part of its delegation; Canada bought oil producers Suncor and Tourmaline; the United Kingdom brought 20 lobbyists; and Italy brought employees of energy giants Eni and Enel. Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and Eni, which brought a combined total of 39 lobbyists, are also linked to enabling genocide in Palestine by “fuelling Israel’s war machine.”
The KBPO findings come at the end of a year in which global temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions shattered records, and amidst evidence of fossil fuel complicity in genocide in Palestine via the supply of oil and gas to Israel. They also come amidst revelations that many of the world’s largest fossil fuel corporations have approved US$250 billion in oil and gas expenditure since COP28.
Industry presence in Baku stands in stark contrast to the stated aims of COP29, where ending fossil fuels, false solutions, and climate finance are all hot topics. It further substantiates the growing call from Global South countries, public officials, UN constituencies, and wider civil society to eject polluters from talks.
Corporate access and lobbying at UN climate talks isn’t limited to the fossil fuel industry. Other polluting industries deeply implicated in the climate crisis such as finance, agribusiness, and transportation are also present, although they are not included in this analysis. KBPO counts only organisations or delegations as fossil fuel lobbyists if they can be reasonably assumed to have the objective of influencing the formulation or implementation of policy or legislation in the interests of a fossil fuel corporation and its shareholders.
The number of fossil fuel representatives at UN climate talks has been consistently high, with the industry present since their inception. These findings build on calls in recent years to protect the UN’s climate negotiations by establishing clear conflict of interest policies and accountability measures, with countries collectively representing almost 70% of the world’s population having requested these conflicts of interest be addressed.
Last year, KBPO’s analysis showed that an historic high of more than 2,450 fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access to the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, up from 636 the year before that in Egypt. Despite the overall number of participants this year (52,305) being significantly less than the 97,372 last year in Dubai, the fossil fuel industry still appears to have descended on Baku in extraordinary numbers.
The Kick Big Polluters Out campaign is calling on the UN climate body and governments to continue on the road towards a robust Accountability Framework to address the problem at its root, to prioritize the millions of lives on the line by the climate crisis and lack of action to address it as with the tobacco industry at the World Health Organisation tobacco treaty talks.
Source: The Nation
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