A group of prominent scientists, advocates and policy leaders have issued an open letter to the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Secretariat Simon Stiell as world leaders gather in Baku for COP29.
There is no question that without the COP, the world would be heading towards a 5 degree-warmed world. There is no doubt that climate change is a global challenge and must be solved through multilateral negotiations alongside ambition at the National level through Nationally Determined Contributions.
The signatories propose seven key reforms to ensure a COP that can deliver on agreed climate commitments and ensure the urgent energy transition and phase-out of fossil fuels:
- Improve the selection process for COP presidencies: We need strict eligibility criteria to exclude countries who do not support the phase out/transition away from fossil energy. Host countries must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris Agreement
- Streamline for speed and scale: COP meetings must be transformed into smaller, more frequent, solution-driven meetings to accelerate action and allow for timely adjustments based on emerging scientific findings and changing global circumstances.
- Improve implementation and accountability: The COP process must be strengthened with mechanisms to hold countries accountable for their climate targets and commitments.
- Robust tracking of climate financing: With climate finance increasingly disbursed as interest-bearing loans, there is a need for standardised definitions of what qualifies as climate finance, alongside reporting and tracking mechanisms.
- Amplify the voice of authoritative science: The signatories share growing concerns that climate COPs do not sufficiently integrate the latest scientific evidence and call for a permanent scientific advisory body to be formally integrated into the COP structure.
- Recognise links between poverty, inequality and planetary instability: New research from the Earth Commission and from Earth4All affirms the important linkages between ecological and social change processes. The letter calls for a Climate-Poverty Policy Envoy to ensure that these critical links are anchored in the negotiations and implementation actions.
- Enhance equitable representation: With fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbering scientific, Indigenous and climate-vulnerable nation representatives at past COPs, there is a need for stronger transparency and disclosure rules and clear guidelines that require companies to demonstrate alignment between their climate commitments, business model and lobbying activities.