Azerbaijan Calls For $1 Billion Fund To Address Global Warming – Is This A Joke?

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Azerbaijan, the host country for the next global climate meeting — COP 29 — is asking wealthy nations and fossil fuel companies to contribute to a $1 billion fund that will help poor countries cope with the accumulating horrors of an overheating planet. The Climate Finance Action Fund will take financial contributions from fossil fuel producing countries and companies and use the money to invest in projects in the developing world that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help build resilience to the impacts of extreme weather.

Yalchin Rafiyev, the chief negotiator for the COP29 presidency, said, “Traditional funding methods have proven to be inadequate to the challenges of the climate crisis, so we have decided on a different approach. The fund will be capitalised with contributions from fossil-fuel countries and companies and will catalyse the private sector. Any developing country will be eligible [to receive money from] the fund.”

Contributions to the fund will be voluntary and no mechanism is proposed to require the countries and companies most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to pay into it. Climate advocates smell a rat and say the proposal by Azerbaijan falls well short of the levy on fossil fuels that some campaigners have been calling for.

Bronwen Tucker, the public finance lead at the campaign group Oil Change International, told The Guardian, “This is a dangerous distraction from the strong new climate finance goal and national plans that COP29 must ensure for a fair, full and fast fossil fuel phase-out.” Harjeet Singh, the global engagement director at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, added, “While the announcement of a new fund for developing countries echoes the long standing demands for holding the fossil fuel industry accountable, it must not serve as a free pass for continued extraction of gas, oil and coal. The fossil fuel industry has caused the climate crisis and must be adequately penalized to pay for the transition and climate damages.”

Setting up the fund at COP29 does represent a first attempt within the UN climate negotiations to link fossil fuel producing countries and industries — which produce the bulk of the world’s greenhouse gas emission — with a responsibility to help poor countries pay for the consequences they face from the climate crisis. Azerbaijan is seeking a minimum of $1 billion from at least 10 countries and big companies to capitalize the new fund. It will be headquartered in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and its overseeing board will be made up of representatives from the contributors. It will operate independently of existing multilateral development banks as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Bronwen Tucker said, “Polluters must pay for their climate crimes on the scale of trillions, not with a $1 billion voluntary fund that gives Big Oil decision making powers. Fossil fuel interests have knowingly and systematically blocked, delayed and undermined necessary climate solutions and shouldn’t have a seat at the table.” Azerbaijan has not yet been specific about its own contribution to the fund, though it has pledged to make one. No other countries have yet signed up to contribute to the fund.

The fund will not invest in any fossil fuels, including gas. Any profits generated by the fund, such as from investing in renewable energy, will be plowed back into the fund so there will be no opportunity for profit-taking by private sector investors and governments. Bob Ward, a policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, warns, “The Climate Finance Action Fund could be regarded as climate washing if it is intended to alleviate the pressure to phase out oil, coal and gas.”

Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, who has been visiting his home in Grenada where the houses of relatives were severely damaged by Hurricane Beryl, called on all countries to produce stronger plans to cut emissions, and to assist the poor countries worst hit by the climate crisis. “The significance of this [COP] process is that it is humanity’s best hope of solving the climate crisis, achieving decarbonization and building climate resilience. This process does deliver results, as we have seen.”

Azerbaijan & COP 29

Really, Simon? The unending string of COP conferences over the past 28 years have made no more difference to the struggle to keep the Earth habitable for humans than a pisshole in the snow. They customarily attract more fossil fuel shills and lobbyists than delegates and wind up being a celebration of an oil and methane economy that threatens us all. And not to put too fine a point on it, Azerbaijan itself is a shining monument to the destructive power of fossil fuels. The Caspian Sea — once a pristine body of water — is now a festering sinkhole of sludge, thanks to decades of fossil fuel extraction. Having Azerbaijan follow Dubai as the host country for this year’s COP is an insult to everyone who wants to see real action taken to limit global overheating.

Why do we even bother with these COP conferences which are themselves little more than greenwashing? After COP28 in Dubai, reaction was decidedly pessimistic. Writing in the Washington Post, Shannon Osaka said, “The problem with every country’s promise to phase out fossil fuels is that nobody is really planning for a fossil fuel phaseout.” In other words, everyone is paying lip service to the idea expressed by the delegates in Dubai, while rushing full speed ahead to extract every molecule of coal, oil, or methane that still lies hidden beneath the Earth.

Beneath the U.N. agreement lies a darker truth, Osaka said. No fossil fuel company or country has a real plan for phasing out fossil fuels. On the contrary, almost all expect to continue extracting coal, oil and gas far into the future and far beyond what is needed to cut emissions enough to meet established climate goals. Part of the reason is that almost every country and company sees itself in a unique position — the future last producer of fossil fuels.

“Every country has their own reason why they should be the last,” said Michael Lazarus, a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute and one of the authors of the Production Gap Report, which analyzed the plans countries have for fossil fuel expansion. That report shows that all the world’s nations plan to produce twice as much fossil fuel as would be consistent with holding global average temperatures to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

The report analyzed fossil fuel production estimates from the governments of 20 large fossil fuel producing countries, including the United States, Russia, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates. By 2050, the gap is projected to be even larger. Those countries expect to produce 2½ times more fossil fuel in 2050 than would align with a target of 2°C. Make no mistake, at 2°C, the Earth is well on its way to becoming a baked potato where few humans can survive.

“It’s a complete disconnect between what governments are planning for and what is required to meet Paris goals,” said Greg Muttitt, a senior associate at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. In other words, all of the hoopla over the 28 climate conferences so far has had no discernible effect on the fossil fuel industry.

The Takeaway

One billion dollars to fix the climate crisis? Are they serious? That is about one one-millionth of what will be needed to fix the mess we have made for ourselves. Here at CleanTechnica, we are almost embarrassed to keep reporting on these annual conferences, which always promise real results but never deliver on those promises. It’s a little like watching Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. Will COP29 in Azerbaijan be any different? Don’t hold your breath.

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