From Pacific Island students to executives at global organizations like Greenpeace, many are growing frustrated with the slow and uneven international efforts to combat climate change.
This week, over 200 civil society and Indigenous groups issued a joint statement advocating significant reforms on decision-making processes and corporate involvement.
The statement coincided with talks in Germany, where nations prepared for the 30th annual Conference of the Parties (COP), the UNFCCC’s decision-making body. Notably, the talks in Germany occurred without an official U.S. delegation, as previously reported.
This joint statement reflects years of frustration with the COP format’s inability to address climate justice. “We have seen the COP process deteriorating over the years,” said Lien Vandamme, a senior campaigner at the Center for International Environmental Law.
At the German talks, countries most vulnerable to climate change highlighted the slow response to the escalating crisis. “Every fraction of a degree matters,” commented Evans Njewa, chair of the UN’s Least Developed Countries group.
Finance Frustration: Last year’s COP29 in Azerbaijan, dubbed “the finance COP,” was intended to urge wealthy nations to increase funding for developing countries to tackle climate change. Developed nations were expected to update their 2009 pledge of $100 billion per year, which falls short of actual needs.
Developing nations requested $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 for clean energy transitions and climate adaptations, but negotiations reduced the figure to $300 billion, with the larger amount included as an aspirational goal.
“The UNFCCC has reached a critical breaking point,” the letter states, criticizing the failure to deliver climate justice and uphold international law.
The reform call emphasizes five key changes:
- Switching to majority-based decision-making to prevent large polluters from weakening outcomes and ensuring COPs are led by countries with demonstrable climate progress.
- Stopping “corporate capture” by fossil fuel companies, advocating for a strong accountability framework to guard against vested interests.
- Increasing accountability in international obligations, suggesting incentives and penalties to improve compliance.
- Ensuring COP hosts uphold human rights standards, particularly allowing free expression and protest.
Repeated Asks for Reform: Calls for COP reform are not new. Prior demands, including those backed by figures like former UNFCCC leader Christiana Figueres, have met little success.
“Most proposals in this statement have been raised over the past 30 years,” said Vandamme, highlighting this unified effort as unique.
Most changes require consensus from UNFCCC member states, complicating sweeping reforms. The UNFCCC did not respond to requests for comment on the coalition’s demands.
COP30 is scheduled for Brazil this November. Vandamme hopes organizers will work with the coalition to implement a conflict of interest policy.
With extreme weather worsening, the coalition argues there’s no time to waste. “Global climate governance is increasingly seen as out of touch,” they note, urging the UNFCCC to align with international law to prevent dangerous climate change.
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Original Story at insideclimatenews.org