GNV News November 10, 2024

According to AFP on October 31, 2024, Papua New Guinea announced it will not participate in the 29th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (UNFCCC COP29), to be held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, from November 11, 2024. In interviews with AFP and RNZ, Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said that “COP is a complete waste of time” and amounts to “empty promises and inaction,” protesting the “lack of financial and moral commitment in the international community” toward climate action.

COP is an annual summit at which countries decide on legally binding efforts to address climate change. At the 2015 COP summit, the Paris Agreement was adopted, under which nearly every country in the world agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global temperature rise. However, the world—especially high-income countries—continues to increase greenhouse gas emissions. According to a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), greenhouse gas concentrations surged in 2023, reaching a new record high.

It has also been reported that Azerbaijan, the host country of this summit, plans to significantly expand fossil fuel production and exports over the next decade. In addition, the president of this summit, COP29, Mukhtar Babayev, is a former executive of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, and there are concerns that SOCAR staff may be using the conference to negotiate oil and gas deals.

Learn more about climate change and reporting → “The realities of climate change and countermeasures: what is being reported?”

Learn more about international conferences and reporting → “Agendas of international conferences and international coverage”

COP29 venue (Photo: Zulfugar Graphics / Shutterstock.com)