Parties in Wonderland: The Facade of COP29 and the end of multilateral climate talk as we know it?

<I am a CSO representative who represents the climate vulnerable people around the world I acknowledge my privileges in traveling to and attending climate negotiations. Views are my own and doesn't represent my organization>

So what is a facade?

Merriam-Webster: "A way of behaving or appearing that gives other people a false idea of your true feelings or situation."

Oxford English Dictionary (OED): "An outward appearance that is maintained to conceal a less pleasant or creditable reality."

The COP29 climate negotiations went into overtime a few hours ago, leaving the venue charged with tension and anxiety on the final day. Throughout these two weeks negotiators were eager to resolve outstanding issues on what has been dubbed the "finance" COP. The LDCs have jointly rejected the final day text and the promise of $250 billion annual climate financing offer from wealthy nations and the negotiations will be dragged over to one more "day."

Vulnerable nations had initially hoped for $1.3 trillion in annual funding to address climate-related damages and support adaptation efforts. Instead, we saw a ballad of Ad hominem fallacy (This is a fallacy in which a claim is rejected on the basis of an aspect of someone's character, identity, motivations, or even the relationships they have with other). - where decades of evidence, sorrow and promises from the Paris Agreement were substituted with the emotions of business and profiteering steered by the 1777 fossil fuel lobbyist inside the negotiation halls in Baku.

We hear that the developing countries proposal for USD 1.3 trillion a year for the New Collective Quantified Goal on #ClimateFinance and #NCQG unreasonable. Let me tell you what is extreme and unreasonable, spending US$ 7 trillion on #FossilFuel subsidies. - Panama Party Representatives

As I am writing this, I recall how Papua New Guinea had termed the COP process an entire waste of time or a facade. Papua country’s foreign minister had stated leading up to the UN climate summits have produced ‘no results’ and withdrew from Cop29. To me these negotiations feels like the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It feels like we are all different Alices and we are falling through a wonderland of make belief known as "climate-responsibilities" where climate change discourse has become a delusion and a mad-hatter's joke. Moreover, it seems, as Lewis had symbolized, this feels like escapism for the rich nations. It feels like negotiators from these nations escapes the constraints of climate reality of the vulnerable nations, and enters a dreamlike space where the rules of logic, evidences of climate impacts and society are suspended regardless of the severity. Truly, after the 29th COP this feels like the biggest facade in the global stage ranking second to the UN Security council's debacle to end the Palestine-Israel ceasefire was stalled for the fourth time by the US.

I can't help but ask these questions; Are the lives of all vulnerable communities a mere joke? Are these a big facade of false hope we cook up every year? Who is the global climate collective fighting for exactly? Fossil fuel lobbyists?

What are we witnessing?

To me, we are clearly witnessing the repeat of the Kyoto Protocol, and end multilateral climate talks. The Kyoto Protocol, implemented in 2005, was hailed as a landmark global agreement in the fight against climate change just as the historic Paris agreements. It introduced legally binding emission reduction targets for developed countries, setting the stage for international climate action. However, despite its ambitious goals, the Protocol faced significant challenges which led to its ultimate demise.

We are indeed seeing a similar pattern with the current negotiations. Our talks and promises feels like challenges. Our commitments feel like an empty priority. With several key leaders Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China’s President Xi Jinping, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese all skipping the summit - it became much more evident. .

While the Kyoto Protocol did not achieve its desired impact, it provided invaluable lessons about the complexities of global climate governance and multilateral climate talks. Its failure should have underscored the need for inclusive, enforceable, and adaptive frameworks that balanced economic realities with the urgency of climate action but instead we got years of false display of hope and the polar opposite. As we continue this process, the entire conference of parties and the negotiation process seems like going in the same direction.

I am exhausted, because first and foremost my job is to ensure #climatejustice and I echo with one of my gurus.

We are exhausted by the decades of games being played by developed countries. Their only interest is profits, profits profits. They see the #ClimateCrisis as a money-making opportunity. - Harjeet Singh

I left #Baku with a heavy heart. This year, I opted for one week instead of the usual two weeks of climate negotiations I keep repeating in my head what late Dr. Saleemul Huq had said, you have to be there regardless of how sour it gets. If you are not there, they will win. This year through the leadership of heroines and heroes like gina cortés valderrama and Asad Rehman I joined my fellow comrades to protest. I would like to personally thank them for being relentless and fighting the good fight.

I will end with this quote that captures many of our sentiments. I admire the collective's action to propose a no deal. We must continue to hold accountability where it is due. We might get a tokenistic deal tomorrow with some revisions but we have to face this facade head on regardless of how multilateralism crumbles. If not, as Jacobo mentioned, we will all go down together.

“We urge all developing countries to stand strong in the negotiations and continue pushing forward. This proposed deal is unacceptable—sometimes no deal is better than a bad one. Wealthy nations built their prosperity on the backs of poorer ones through colonization, slavery, and other exploitative means. They owe a historical debt, and the real need far exceeds $1.3 trillion a year. We’re all in this together. If our world sinks, it won’t matter if you’re in first class or steerage—like on the Titanic, we’ll all go down together.”— Jacobo Ocharan, Climate Action Network International

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#ClimateEmergency #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice #COP29