Experts Admits UN Climate Talks No Longer Purposeful

The United Nations’ COP climate talks are “no longer fit for purpose” and need an urgent overhaul, key experts including a former UN secretary general and former UN climate chief have said.

In a letter to the UN, senior figures say countries should not host the talks if they don’t support the phase out of fossil energy.

This week the Azerbaijani president told world leaders gathered in his country for COP29 that natural gas was a “gift from God” and he shouldn’t be blamed for bringing it to market.

That came days after the BBC reported that a senior Azerbaijani official appeared to have used his role at COP to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals.

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The UN’s climate talks have made significant progress in recent years, despite the fact that unanimous agreement is needed among almost 200 countries to take action.

The Paris climate agreement, signed in 2015, outlines a long-term plan to rein in rising temperatures, as countries strive to keep that rise under 1.5C this century.

They have also agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, and to treble renewable power by 2030.

But while the authors of this letter recognise these achievements, they feel that the slow-moving COP process is “no longer fit for purpose” in dealing with a fast-moving climate crisis.

“Its current structure simply cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity,” said its signatories.

They include former UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson.

The authors are concerned that the current COP process is not able to make change happen quickly or able to force countries to act.

At last year’s COP28 meeting in Dubai all countries agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.”
But 12 months later emissions of warming gases have increased once again, up by almost 1%.

Scientists say these emissions need to fall by 42% by the end of this decade to avoid a global temperature rise in excess of 1.5C, considered the threshold to far more dangerous impacts than we are seeing at present.

“Planet Earth is in critical condition,” said leading climate scientist Johan Rockström, another signatory.

“Thirty years of negotiations have made very significant results,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.

BBC/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma