Climate Cop to change, open letter from scientists and former UN leaders
Twenty experts and former UN leaders, including Ban Ki-moon, have called for a change of organisation and an environmentally oriented choice of the next Cop venues.
2' min read
2' min read
There is a need for a shift in the organisation of climate-related COPs and 'host countries must demonstrate their high level of ambition in supporting the goals of the Paris Agreement' otherwise they should be excluded as event venues. More than 20 experts, former leaders and scientists, including former head of the Unfcc Christiana Figueres and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, have called for a change of gear for the UN-organised climate Cop events. There has been a lot of controversy in recent days about the host of Cop29, Baku, and the statements of the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, about oil and gas as a "gift from God, just like the sun, wind and minerals".
Open letter
.The stance came in a open letter where, in the foreword, all the successes recorded by the 28 Cops to date are listed. At the same time, however, a change of speed is called for: 'The current structure (of the Cop, ed.) cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale that are essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity. This is what drives us to call for a fundamental overhaul of the Cop. We need a shift from negotiation to implementation, enabling the Cop to deliver on agreed commitments and ensure the urgent energy transition and phase-out of fossil fuels.
The Seven Points
.Seven points are enumerated to initiate this necessary change. The most important is the first one, i.e. the location. Improve the selection process for the COP chairmanships: "We need strict eligibility criteria to exclude countries that do not support phase out/transition away from fossil energy.
The other points concern, among other things, the speeding up and scaling up of the solutions identified during the Cops; more communication of the most authoritative scientific theses is also called for, as well as (point 6) "Recognising the interdependencies between poverty, inequality and planetary instability".
Other items
.In addition to the 22 signatories of the open letter, there were other voices highly critical of the UN Cop organisation. These included Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley calling for urgent reform and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
