COP 29 should focus on people-led solutions and holding perpetrators accountable
People-led solutions should be prioritized in climate change talks and those historically responsible should be held accountable. The people most affected must have access to effective remedies for loss and damage, in line with international law. COP29 should advance the implementation of a true and radical transformation of food systems including a just transition to agroecology.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), which gets underway in Baku, Azerbaijan today, needs to address the root causes of the climate catastrophe – including the impact of food production which accounts for an estimated third of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Hosted by a major fossil fuel producing country, this COP has been dubbed the “money conference” as there will be an emphasis on financial approaches to remedying and mitigating. It is also an opportunity for some to push for corporate-led false solutions which only perpetuate the crisis.
Remedying Loss and Damage
States attending COP 29 must renew their commitment to supporting lower-income countries in addressing loss and damage. In line with international human rights law, those countries with historic responsibilities for the climate catastrophe must provide adequate remediation and reparation for loss and damage comprising restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. This includes debt cancellation and fundamental reforms of the international finance infrastructure.
“Climate induced disasters have been hitting Zambia at an unprecedented scale leading to millions of affected people whose right to food is at peril,” says Vladimir Chilinya, FIAN Zambia Country Coordinator, who is attending the conference.
“Countries with historic responsibilities for having contributed to climate change have to remedy the losses and damages and provide full reparations.”
More ambitious funding commitments are urgently needed.
States have to turn existing pledges into real finance flows for Global South countries. Addressing loss and damage requires adequate access to information, and meaningful and effective participation in decision making for those at the frontline of the climate crisis. The fund for loss and damage must ensure mobilization of funds and direct access of communities and must prevent the creation of new debts adding to the burden of Global South countries vulnerable to the impact of loss and damage.
False solutions
Many corporate driven false climate solutions, such as carbon markets, offsetting or new technologies for climate protection like geoengineering are dangerous distractions from real climate action and excuses to continue business as usual.
There is need for regulatory measures to safeguard the human rights of peasants and rural communities in carbon markets and develop and implement public policies that do not result in the commodification and financialization of nature, but promote alternative, community-driven models which protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity.
Agrarian Reforms are Key to Enable Peoples-led Solutions
The knowledge, practices, and innovations of small-scale food producers and other rural communities are crucial to addressing the climate crisis and must be acknowledged, recognized and fostered. The right of these communities to effective, meaningful and informed participation must be guaranteed. To effectively protect them as stewards of land, forests, coastal areas and oceans and enable them to address the climate crisis, it is key to enable agrarian reforms, including recognition, restitution, redistribution, and restoration of land along with clear regulations and adequate financing, with clear budget allocations at national levels.
“Numerous processes at the UNFCCC are related to food systems and agriculture. It is critical that COP29 advances with peoples-led human rights-based approaches like the transition to agroecology and greenwashing of agro-industrial corporate actors is avoided,” says Sabine Pabst, Climate and Eco-Destruction Coordinator at FIAN International.
States must promote in their Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans the adoption and implementation of binding transition plans that include human-rights based support mechanisms for small-scale food producers and other rural communities in line with human rights obligations and policies adopted the UN Committee on World Food Security.
For more information, please contact Sabine Pabst pabst@fian.org
