The forthcoming COP30 climate change conference in Brazil should aim to rebuild ‘trust in climate diplomacy’ by distancing itself from fossil fuel interests, an open letter on the openDemocracy platform has urged.
Carlos Afonso Nobre, creator of the Amazonia 4.0 Initiative and co-chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon, and Brice Böhmer, who leads Transparency International’s work on climate and environmental topics, noted in their letter that recent climate conferences have raised concerns about transparency and accountability, with more than 1,700 lobbyists from the fossil fuels industry granted entry to COP29.
In addition, the host country of the previous year’s conference, the UAE, “reportedly used COP28 to pursue fossil fuel deals,” they state.
“These are not isolated incidents. They reveal a deeper problem at the heart of the process; negotiations intended to serve the public good are being shaped by private interests.”
‘Broader vulnerability’
These instances highlight a “broader vulnerability” within global climate negotiations, where private interests continue to shape public policies, as evidenced by the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.
“Today, multilateral institutions are under renewed pressure, not only from geopolitical fragmentation and constrained finance but also through declining public trust in the integrity of the process,” the authors put it.
“If we want people to believe in international cooperation, to trust that multilateralism can still deliver solutions to the climate crisis, then we must confront this directly. Failing to do so will put the credibility of the entire process at risk.”
Ahead of COP30 in Belém, more than 250 civil society organisations and experts have signed an open letter calling on Brazil, to protect the climate negotiations from “undue influence”, they state, adding that three steps are necessary to safeguard the integrity of the negotiations.
This includes excluding fossil fuel and high-polluting industry lobbyists from state delegations, requiring all participants in COP30 to publicly declare their affiliations via a central, accessible registry, and to seek to ensure that only countries making genuine progress on climate goals are eligible to host future summits.
The authors also urge Brazil to advance its proposed ‘global ethical stocktake’, which would bring together a geographically diverse group of thinkers, scientists, politicians, religious leaders, artists, philosophers, and Indigenous peoples and communities, to discuss ethical commitments and practices for dealing with the climate crisis.
‘Nearing a tipping point’
“The scientific warnings about climate and ecological tipping points have never been clearer,” Böhmer and Nobre put it.”But the diplomacy we need to respond to them is nearing a tipping point of its own. A process designed to hold governments accountable cannot continue to grant privileged access to the very industries driving the crisis.
“Brazil has an opportunity to set a new standard, one that shows climate leadership means not just delivering results, but protecting the integrity of the institutions meant to deliver them.” Read more here.
Read more: ‘Race to Belém’ initiative launched to protect Brazilian rainforest
