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PRESS RELEASE: Disastrous Start to COP29 As Countries Bulldoze Ahead with Carbon Markets Paving Way for Risky Geoengineering Technofixes
*Comes at Expense of Ecosystems, Communities and Human Rights*
Longer summary or full text
PRESS RELEASE
Disastrous Start to COP29 As Countries Bulldoze Ahead with Carbon Markets Paving Way for Risky Geoengineering Technofixes
*Comes at Expense of Ecosystems, Communities and Human Rights*
12 November, 2024
Baku, Azerbaijan
As climate negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties COP29 starts, countries have 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 to this without negotiation, debate or discussion sets a dangerous precedent.
Coraina de la Plaza, Global Coordinator, Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance said, “COP29 has had a very bad start and sets an appalling precedent from a procedural point of view, but above all, it has taken yet another step on the road to climate disaster by backing false solutions and the interest of a few to the detriment of the planet and peoples. As the last decades have shown, carbon markets are not only a false solution to the climate crisis but also perpetuate the extractive colonial model of development and human rights violations.”
The inclusion of carbon removals opens doors to commercialize several forms of dangerous and risky geoengineering technofixes risking harm to both climate and biodiversity goals. Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America Director, ETC Group added, “The COP29 decision supporting carbon markets on its first day is a triple blow against climate justice, nature and communities. It allows the Article 6.4 supervisory body to decide independently and to not be accountable to the Parties, which is a very serious precedent against democracy and transparency at United Nations. At the same time, the standards of this unaccountable body open the floodgates for dangerous marine and terrestrial geoengineering experiments to become new business, profiting in the carbon markets, even though they entail serious environmental and social threats and will worsen the climate chaos.”
“Carbon markets put Indigenous Peoples’ lives at risk,” said Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “For over 20 years, these fraudulent mechanisms have allowed fossil fuel industries to continue with impunity. At COP 29, the corporate capture has superseded any semblance of UN democracy with a move from the COP Presidency to go rogue and push through Article 6 carbon market methodology and removals texts without following party-driven procedure. IEN strongly opposes geoengineering technologies in the activities on removals text, which still has not produced a list of what removals technologies will even be included in A6.4 as an offset. We will continue to voice our opposition against Article 6 carbon market regimes that will further violate the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples, and fail to deliver urgent emissions cuts.”
Just last week, 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,” added Linda Schneider, Senior Programme Officer at the Heinrich Boell Foundation.
—ENDS—
Additional Resources
- UN climate talks could undermine precaution on geoengineering called for by the biodiversity convention
- Article 6 is not about saving the planet. The COPs are not about climate change. This is about profit
- Climate justice groups condemn COP29’s carbon markets decision setting the tone for corporate profits to prevail people’s interests
- Press Release: A Big Win As UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP16 Reaffirms Geoengineering is a Risk
- Carbon markets, geoengineering and other false solutions: What’s at stake at the current climate talks?
- Geoengineering Experiments Tracker
About Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance
The Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance is a driving force in the fight against the growing threat of large-scale technological manipulation of the climate and biodiversity: geoengineering. We are an international civil society network of close to 200 organizations from over 45 different countries, from the Global South and the Global North. HOME was first launched as a global campaign in April 2010 at The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In October 2018 we released the HOME Manifesto denouncing geoengineering with a demand for an immediate stop to all open-air experiments.
Follow us: Website| X | LinkedIn | YouTube
For media enquiries please contact
Neha Gupta, Communications Coordinator
PRESS RELEASE
Disastrous Start to COP29 As Countries Bulldoze Ahead with Carbon Markets Paving Way for Risky Geoengineering Technofixes
*Comes at Expense of Ecosystems, Communities and Human Rights*
12 November, 2024
Baku, Azerbaijan
As climate negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties COP29 starts, countries have 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 to this without negotiation, debate or discussion sets a dangerous precedent.
Coraina de la Plaza, Global Coordinator, Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance said, “COP29 has had a very bad start and sets an appalling precedent from a procedural point of view, but above all, it has taken yet another step on the road to climate disaster by backing false solutions and the interest of a few to the detriment of the planet and peoples. As the last decades have shown, carbon markets are not only a false solution to the climate crisis but also perpetuate the extractive colonial model of development and human rights violations.”
The inclusion of carbon removals opens doors to commercialize several forms of dangerous and risky geoengineering technofixes risking harm to both climate and biodiversity goals. Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America Director, ETC Group added, “The COP29 decision supporting carbon markets on its first day is a triple blow against climate justice, nature and communities. It allows the Article 6.4 supervisory body to decide independently and to not be accountable to the Parties, which is a very serious precedent against democracy and transparency at United Nations. At the same time, the standards of this unaccountable body open the floodgates for dangerous marine and terrestrial geoengineering experiments to become new business, profiting in the carbon markets, even though they entail serious environmental and social threats and will worsen the climate chaos.”
“Carbon markets put Indigenous Peoples’ lives at risk,” said Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “For over 20 years, these fraudulent mechanisms have allowed fossil fuel industries to continue with impunity. At COP 29, the corporate capture has superseded any semblance of UN democracy with a move from the COP Presidency to go rogue and push through Article 6 carbon market methodology and removals texts without following party-driven procedure. IEN strongly opposes geoengineering technologies in the activities on removals text, which still has not produced a list of what removals technologies will even be included in A6.4 as an offset. We will continue to voice our opposition against Article 6 carbon market regimes that will further violate the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples, and fail to deliver urgent emissions cuts.”
Just last week, 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,” added Linda Schneider, Senior Programme Officer at the Heinrich Boell Foundation.
—ENDS—
Additional Resources
- UN climate talks could undermine precaution on geoengineering called for by the biodiversity convention
- Article 6 is not about saving the planet. The COPs are not about climate change. This is about profit
- Climate justice groups condemn COP29’s carbon markets decision setting the tone for corporate profits to prevail people’s interests
- Press Release: A Big Win As UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP16 Reaffirms Geoengineering is a Risk
- Carbon markets, geoengineering and other false solutions: What’s at stake at the current climate talks?
- Geoengineering Experiments Tracker
About Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance
The Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance is a driving force in the fight against the growing threat of large-scale technological manipulation of the climate and biodiversity: geoengineering. We are an international civil society network of close to 200 organizations from over 45 different countries, from the Global South and the Global North. HOME was first launched as a global campaign in April 2010 at The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In October 2018 we released the HOME Manifesto denouncing geoengineering with a demand for an immediate stop to all open-air experiments.
Follow us: Website| X | LinkedIn | YouTube
For media enquiries please contact
Neha Gupta, Communications Coordinator
