The next United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP29) will take place in Baku (Azerbaijan) from November 11 to 22, while Spain continues in shock after the devastating DANA that has caused hundreds of deaths and terrible material damage. Climate change is already showing its worst effects, in the form of increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, which, according to science, will be especially virulent in Spain and southern Europe. In this context, the next climate summit takes on special importance: the world leaders gathered there will have to respond courageously to another year of record temperatures and increasing emissions by forcing the fossil industry, mainly responsible for the climate crisis, to abandon the gas, coal and oil and to pay for the damage caused.
«It is terrible that at this moment, when climate change shows us its most devastating effects and the catastrophic world we are heading towards, deniers like Trump who also ignore human rights take power. We must resist, stop waging war on nature and invest in our survival as a species. We demand that all governments reject the pressures of the fossil lobby and defend us from this ecosocial emergency with ambitious commitments at this COP. Compliance with the Paris Climate Agreement is now more important than ever,” declared Eva Saldaña, executive director of Greenpeace Spain.
«The Valencia catastrophe has shown us the urgency of putting economic resources at the service of repairing the losses and damages caused by climate change, the importance of implementing adaptation plans to be better prepared against increasingly more impacts. severe and stop adding fuel to the fire by burning fossil fuels. Fighting climate change is saving lives,” says Pedro Zorrilla, representative of Greenpeace Spain in the international Greenpeace delegation at COP29.
Jasper Inventor, head of the Greenpeace International delegation at COP29, says: “Storms and floods destroy cities and people die: hope lies in climate action. But action depends on climate finance and holding polluters accountable. Fossil fuel companies and big polluters must pay once and for all for the losses and damage they have caused. Leaders have the power to enforce this justice and must act now. The rescue plan is the decision of COP28 to abandon fossil fuels, a path that must lead to ambitious climate action plans for 2035 that progressively eliminate coal, oil and gas. “Our climate is on life support and political leaders must step up and take the necessary urgent measures.”
At COP29, Greenpeace calls for:
An ambitious financial target, the New Quantified Collective Goal (NCQG), that commits governments to significantly increase public financing to countries in the Global South for adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage, and that makes the fossil fuel industry and other big polluters pay.
Implement the COP28 agreement to move away from fossil fuels, including an alignment of countries’ climate action plans for 2030 and 2035 with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
Ensure that the rules established on carbon offsets and markets ensure that high-integrity carbon-dense ecosystems are protected and restored.
In the words of Tracy Carty, climate policy expert at Greenpeace International: “The NCQG is expected to set the terms that will determine who pays for the rising costs of climate action over the next decade and beyond, and whether the least responsible countries and communities of causing the climate crisis get the support they urgently need and are entitled to. As the human costs of inaction rise, the trillions in subsidies the fossil fuel industry receives and the profits it makes dwarf climate finance for countries in the Global South. The NCQG must rectify this injustice and make polluters pay for the damages they have caused. Trillions of dollars needed for climate action plans for countries in the Global South: the main outcome of the NCQG must be an unequivocal commitment by rich developed countries to significantly increase public financing to help these countries respond to the “growing climate impacts and the transition to renewable energies.”
After the failure of the biodiversity summit (COP16 of the CBD), whose negotiations on financing to protect nature and the ban of harmful subsidies have been blocked by large food and pharmaceutical corporations, biodiversity is more at risk than ever due to the impacts of climate change. The environmental organization makes a desperate call to action for COP29.
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