Why climate activists went undercover to show COP29 chief putting future of our planet up for sale

The world’s biggest climate talks are underway in Azerbaijan this week. And after a year of monster flooding, storms and heat, it’s clear we need to shift away from the fossil fuels turbo-charging these extremes. 

But a very powerful force is pushing in the opposite direction – the fossil fuel industry. 

Of course they’ve long denied it. So this year we went undercover to see whether COP29 was open to fossil fuel interests making more oil, gas and coal deals, risking lives for the sake of their profits. 

And what we found confirmed our fears.

Drill, baby, drill

We knew there was something to worry about when it was announced that COP was being held in Azerbaijan, an authoritarian petrostate.

Last year, the climate talks were held in another petrostate – the UAE. And we found that over the course of their 12-month COP presidency, the UAE’s state oil firm signed more than $100bn in oil deals – a five-fold increase on the previous year.

This time, we went undercover, posing as an oil and gas investor that wanted to sponsor COP29 and invest in Azerbaijan’s national oil company. 

As you’ll see from our report and secret recording, COP29 officials discussed opportunities to invest in Azerbaijani gas. 

We spoke to COP29’s CEO, who is also Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister. While also saying the aim of COP was “solving the climate crisis” and “transitioning away from hydrocarbons”, he talked about an energy future in which Azerbaijan will be producing fossil fuels “perhaps forever”. 

We were also offered an introduction to a senior executive at the national oil company SOCAR to expressly discuss possible oil deals at the summit. 

And there you have it. The country that’s been entrusted with leading this year’s climate negotiations was happy to facilitate talks about fossil fuel deals at the conference.

“A treason” to the process

The story was covered by the BBC and has since made waves across the media. Because despite what the fossil fuel industry will tell you, this is a scandal. 

So much so that the former chief of global UN climate negotiations, Christiana Figueres, denounced using the COP climate talks to strike oil and gas deals as “a treason” to the process. 

The future of our planet is up for sale. And the countries entrusted with running the climate talks are instead open to selling ever more fossil fuels – the products responsible for 90% of global C02 emissions.

Arms dealers at the peace talks

But it’s not just petrostate hosting COP that undermines the purpose of the climate talks.

Fossil fuel influence over COP has long been a problem. Oil and gas lobbyists have been swarming to the climate summits for decades – last year we counted a record 2,400 of them.

Lobbyists sit on panels, give speeches, whisper into the ears of government delegations, and the companies they represent spend millions on PR and spin. 

Fossil fuel lobbyists show up at climate talks to derail bold action on reducing oil production. It’s like inviting arms dealers to peace talks. 

The talks could be very different. They could put pressure on the oil and gas industry to shift to renewables and pay for some of the costs of adapting to our increasingly wild climate. 

We know the oil and gas industry is swimming in cash – in 2022 alone it made $4 trillion. That’s 10 times the annual cost of climate damages in developing countries, which is estimated to be upwards of $400bn per year. The deals that our analysis found Azerbaijan has struck in the year it hosts COP29 could ratchet that figure up further. 

Big Oil has the money and power to act. Instead, it’s making trillions while the world burns. The fact they’re able to do deals at the world’s most important climate talks is the rotten cherry on top.  

COP29.com has a new owner

So we’re fighting back. We’ve taken over cop29.com to launch our new campaign – #ItsPayBackTime. 

We’re demanding that fossil fuel companies should be made to cough up some of the trillions of dollars they’ve made from fuelling climate collapse. 

Lots of people agree with us. The campaign already has the support of Ireland’s former president Mary Robinson, climate justice campaigners like Vanessa Nakate and Kumi Naidoo, Hollywood director Adam McKay, Star Wars actress Rosario Dawson, Harry Potter star Bonnie Wright, musicians Brian Eno and Jon Hopkins and comic Aisling Bea. The list keeps growing.

If you head to the site, you’ll also hear from people who are already paying for climate breakdown – from an indigenous community in Brazil that was hit by mega floods to farmers in the Philippines who wept when describing the impacts on them of multiple typhoons. 

The UN’s loss & damage fund – the pot of money the world is trying to raise to help those most at risk of climate disaster – currently stands at $700m. That’s just 0.02% of the $400bn that climate loss and damage costs developing countries every year.   

This campaign is about justice. It’s about accountability. And it’s about sending a message to the world – the fossil fuel industry broke our climate, now they should pay up to fix it. Will you join us?

You can read the full report here: COP29 is for Oil Deals. Alice Harrison is head of fossil fuels campaigning at Global Witness – a campaigns organisation that investigates the industries that are driving climate breakdown and advocates for systemic solutions.

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