Are COPs still useful? Year after year, the question arises again and again, as these climate greats are accused of perpetuating inaction, while serving as a “greenwashing” operation for the host country. the 29thmy The United Nations climate conference (COP29) has not escaped criticism. It ended on Saturday, November 23 in Baku, Azerbaijan, with an agreement away from the climate emergency while the year 2024 will be the hottest on record.
“The process produces a result in which everyone is unhappy”says Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, climate negotiator for the Democratic Republic of the Congo for fifteen years. Complaint aside “schizophrenic” climate conferences, during which exhausted negotiators end up accepting, after a day or two of prolonged talks, a decision presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. “We tied our hands and, from the beginning of the following year, we set out to unravel everything. »
The logic reached its climax this year. The presidency waited until the day of the official closing, after two weeks of negotiations, to put on the table a quantified objective of financial aid to developing countries, the centerpiece of the conference. The agreement, obtained after a hard struggle, was immediately challenged by the South, including India, Cuba, Bolivia and Nigeria. Enough to reinforce the calls to boycott the COPs, which have been multiplying for some time. In Baku, Papua New Guinea adopted the empty chair policy, a first for the country.
However, a majority of States and observers advocate participation in these conferences, however imperfect they may be. Beyond keeping multilateralism and the climate at the top of the political agenda, “The COPs are the only place where all States can look in the mirror each year and ask themselves if they are doing enough,” recalls Alden Meyer, an expert at the E3G think tank, who has followed the process since its inception in 1992.
Opaque diplomatic process
The COPs are also the only forum that gives a voice to all countries, especially the most vulnerable, unlike other spaces reserved for great powers, such as the G20. “However, we should not wait too long because they only reflect national decisions.warns Alden Meyer. And the UN climate process cannot force a country to do something it does not want or sanction it if it does not meet its goals. »
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