Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance members are at the Twenty Ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

UN Climate Change Conferences (or COPs) take place every year, and are the only multilateral forum on climate change that brings together almost every country.  COP29 aims to agree on the actions to address the climate crisis that is unfolding rapidly.

HOME Alliance members will be following negotiations, participating in events, actions and press conferences addressing the risks of geoengineering, a false climate solution that does not address the root causes of climate change. 

On the first day of COP29 countries rushed ahead to greenlight international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The Article 6.4 Supervisory Body, responsible for setting the rules for the Paris Agreement carbon market, quietly met last month and rebranded their recommendations as "internal standards"—putting them into effect immediately. The decision on the first day of COP29 to take note of this without negotiation, debate or discussion sets a dangerous precedent and could pave way for risky geoengineering technofixes. Read our press release reacting to this.

Just a few days ago, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16 reinforced a historic decision on precautions of geoengineering and reaffirmed the call on a global moratorium on nuclear geoengineering. “The decision made at COP29 could undermine precaution on geoengineering called for by the biodiversity convention. By legitimizing large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal for offsetting purposes, the climate convention puts itself at odds with its biodiversity counterpart, thereby risking exacerbating both the climate and biodiversity crises.

At COP29 our member Health of Mother Earth Foundation’s Stephen Oduware also joined  a press conference by Climate Action Network to emphasize that geoengineering is a false solution that does not address the root causes of the climate crisis.

At the end of the first week, our members joined the larger climate justice movement on  the global day of action, demanding to keep hands off Mother Earth, reiterating that geoengineering is a risk and our earth is not a laboratory.

Photos courtesy David Tong, UNFCCC Flicker