Climate leaders call for urgent overhaul of UN climate process – Global Witness response

Responding to the call from climate leaders for urgent overhaul of UN climate processes, Dominic Kavakeb, Co-Director of Campaigns at Global Witness, said:

"The COP climate talks are essential to fighting the climate crisis - they should be a space for cooperation to agree the collective action we need to build a safer and more stable world. It is why we published an undercover investigation last week exposing COP officials facilitating discussions about fossil fuel deals, referenced in this call for change."

It's for exactly this reason that they cannot continue to be co-opted by the fossil fuel industry - whether that's via sponsorship, links to the COP organising teams, or by the presence of their lobbyists at the talks. We welcome this call by respected and influential global leaders for much needed change, changes Global Witness and others in the climate movement have been campaigning on for years."

Ban Ki-Moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland, today wrote to the UNFCCC stating that "the global climate policy process is no longer fit for purpose and requires comprehensive overhaul to ensure planetary stability and a liveable future for humanity."

The statement calls for "strict eligibility criteria to exclude countries who do not support the phase out/transition away from fossil energy", and states that "host countries must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris Agreement."

The release accompanying the letter makes reference to the Global Witness investigation, published last week, that showed that the Azerbaijan COP29 team charged with leading this year's global UN climate talks helped facilitate discussions about fossil fuel deals at the annual conference.

Earlier today, research from the Kick Big Polluters Out Coalition revealed that the number of fossil fuel lobbyists eclipsed the delegations from the most climate vulnerable nations at COP29.