https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/jayati-ghosh-cop-1.7387605
By Sheena Goodyear · CBC Radio
Jayati Ghosh signs open latter calling for overhaul of annual UN climate conference
It’s time for the United Nations to completely re-think its annual climate change conference, says economist Jayati Ghosh.
Ghosh, a frequent advisor to the UN, is one of several prominent climate experts and former UN and world leaders who have signed an open letter calling on the organization to completely overhaul the annual event that brings delegates from member countries together to tackle climate change.
This year’s conference, COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, has been particularly fraught with controversy.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev opened the conference by calling his country’s oil reserves “a gift of God.”
A senior member of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team was caught using the conference to arrange potential fossil fuel deals with a man posing as an investor.
And efforts to agree on a funding formula to help developing countries adapt to climate change — which was this year’s primary goal — have largely stalled.
Ghosh, a development economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, spoke to As It Happens host Nil Köksal about why she feels COP is failing in its mission, and how it could be better. Here’s part of their conversation.
What was it that made you decide to sign this letter?
These COPs have become meaningless rituals which don’t actually deliver anything. And the problems are too urgent and intense for us to keep doing these big summits that don’t deliver.
You and the others are saying that it’s not time to debate and negotiate anymore. It’s time to actually implement things. Why is it still at the negotiation phase?
The problem really is that countries come and make these commitments far into the future. So they say “by 2050 or 2070.” And that lets them off [the hook].
What we really need is actionable promises, saying: Here are the steps I’m going to take next year, the year after that. And then you come back and say: Well, I took those steps or I didn’t take those steps for the following reasons.
There’s no accountability. There’s no real roadmap that tells us exactly how we’re going to proceed.
We have to move towards more frequent summits, [and] smaller. Not, you know, lots and lots of these private jets arriving with fossil fuel companies trying to do their side deals. But we need smaller events that are actually focused on clear promises that will be met.
Of course, [Trump’s victory] is bad. It’s very bad for the planet. It’s bad for climate. I think it’s bad for the U.S. But the problem is that the U.S. has never really been the best-faith negotiator in the climate process.
Remember, the U.S. is now the world’s largest fossil fuel producer. It’s a net fossil fuel exporter. And its activities in these negotiations, even under different Democratic administrations, [have] not necessarily been in the multilateral interest. It’s been in its own national interest.
So I don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference. I think what really matters is how the rest of the world responds.