COP29 Summit Marked by Acrimonious Debate Over Emissions and Finance

Annual climate gathering reflects divisions between the industrialized states and the Global South

By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Wednesday November 27, 2024

Climate Change and International Political Economy

A two-weeks long annual United Nations Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan has ended without addressing the concerns of the peoples of the underdeveloped and developing geopolitical regions of the world.

Although the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions are to be found in the imperialist states, these governments, led by the United States, are continuing to reject responsibility for its role in endangering the future of humanity and the planet. 

Every year the COP summits are held in different countries ostensibly to discuss problems related to environmental degradation and policies to be implemented aimed at recorrecting the burgeoning crisis. Although declarations are issued at the summits, the problem of global warming continues as evidenced by extreme weather events across the world.

These occurrences whether they be in South Asia, East and Southern Africa, the Caribbean, Western Europe, the United Kingdom as well as South and North America are impacting billions. Tens of millions are being displaced every year while the drain on the national economies of developed and underdeveloped states remain incalculable. 

The imperialist states of North America and Western Europe have consistently avoided any admission of culpability for the worsening environmental situation. What has transpired over the decades since the UN Climate Summits were initiated is that false promises of monetary compensation and assistance have been made by the industrial states while none of these pledges have been met.

This persistent failure to honor longstanding agreements by the West is undergirded by the political divisions prevailing inside the U.S. and other countries. Neither of the political parties have implemented a program in the U.S. to halt and even reverse the rapidly warming of the planet. 

However, with the ascendancy of the second administration of former President Donald Trump, the prevailing outlook among the MAGA Republicans is that concerns about climate change are either overblown or nonexistent. Much of this viewpoint derives from the desire of the U.S. ruling class and its allies to maintain geopolitical dominance. 

Moreover, within the struggle over climate change there is the disproportionate impact of environmental degradation on African Americans and other oppressed peoples. On an international level, floods, hurricanes, cyclones, earthquakes, drought and desertification are portrayed as natural disasters which happen to inflict suffering and instability on former colonial and neo-colonial states. 

This disparate impact can explain the ongoing disagreements between the peoples of the Global South and the leading western capitalist states. Representatives of the peoples of the Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the indigenous of the Western Hemisphere are demanding remuneration for any transition from fossil fuels-based economies to more environmentally sound methods of energy generation. 

Many Delegates Reject Final Communique

Even the New York Times reported on the disappointment of the delegates, particularly those attending from the Global South. An article published on November 24 stated emphatically:

“As soon as the Azerbaijani hosts banged the gavel and declared the deal done, Chandni Raina, the representative from India, the world’s most populous country, tore into them, saying the process had been ‘stage managed.’  ‘It is a paltry sum,’ Ms. Raina said. ‘I am sorry to say that we cannot accept it. We seek a much higher ambition from developed countries.’ She called the agreement ‘nothing more than an optical illusion.’ Speakers from one developing country after another, from Bolivia to Nigeria to Fiji, echoed Ms. Raina’s remarks and assailed the document in furious statements. ‘Let me be crystal clear,’ said Juan Carlos Monterrey, Panama’s special envoy for climate. ‘This process was chaotic, poorly managed, and a complete failure in terms of delivering the ambition required.’” (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/23/climate/cop29-climate-talks-conclusion.html)

Such statements from important states from Asia to South America, Africa and the South Pacific are reflective of the unequal distribution of economic power and resource distribution. Enormous natural wealth in the form of fossil fuels, strategic minerals and metals exists across the globe and the western-based multinational corporations and financial institutions retain control of the market value of these resources. 

The enforcement of this unequal distribution and control of the land, resources and labor of the world’s peoples is carried out by the U.S. Department of Defense and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). All of these wars which involve Washington and Wall Street are designed to seize an even greater amount of the world’s wealth. 

Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Lebanon, Iran, China, Korean Peninsula, the Caribbean, Latin America are all important to the military and economic interests of imperialism. This imperative on the part of the Pentagon and NATO has driven the military expenditures which outstrip all others combined throughout the world. The environmental impact of this vast imperialist-driven military machine encompassing hundreds of bases and millions of troops and other personnel, has been cited by various research centers.

According to one source:

“Scientists and security analysts have warned for more than a decade that global warming is a potential national security concern. They project that the consequences of global warming – rising seas, powerful storms, famine and diminished access to fresh water – may make regions of the world politically unstable and prompt mass migration and refugee crises. Some worry that wars may follow. Yet with few exceptions, the U.S. military’s significant contribution to climate change has received little attention. Although the Defense Department has significantly reduced its fossil fuel consumption since the early 2000s, it remains the world’s single largest consumer of oil – and as a result, one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters.” (https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/ClimateChangeandCostofWar)

With the U.S. and other NATO countries being given such a prominent role at COP29 and preceding summits, any language which targeted the Pentagon for its contribution to rising dangerous levels of global warming would be vetoed by Washington and its allies. Consequently, the deadlock on an effective international policy to address climate change will remain until an alliance of countries and territories can create the necessary cooperation that could achieve definable progress. 

Strengthening the military within the U.S. has been a major plank of the Democratic and Republican parties. This often-repeated slogan of the politicians has never been framed within the context of the role the Pentagon plays in damaging the environment on a world scale.

The Associated Press said of the concluding document of the COP29 Summit:

“But it was not quite the agreement by consensus that these meetings usually operate with and some developing nations were livid about being ignored. COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev gaveled the deal into acceptance before any nation had a chance to speak. When they did they blasted him for being unfair to them, the deal for not being enough and the world’s rich nations for being too stingy. (https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-climate-talks-baku-azerbaijan-finance-8ab629945660ee97d58cdbef10136f35)

Discussions erupted surrounding whether the western industrialized countries should pay $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 or a lesser amount of $300 billion. However, it was not clear from the final declaration, or the comments made by the delegates, how much funding would actually be available for underdeveloped states.  

G20 and COP29: Contradictions Replicated

During the convening of the Group of 20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on November 19, news came that the character of the disagreements in Baku threatened the ability to even issue a final declaration for COP29. There was an appeal to the G20 to urge the UN Climate Conference delegates to reach some type of agreement.

The G20 represents the wealthiest states in the world. It is second only to the G7 which encompasses the most industrialized Western European, North American capitalist states along with Japan. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued a statement from the G20 Summit instructing the COP29 participants to come together on some accord. Guterres said that failure for COP29 was not an option.

At the COP29 gathering there were also discussions on the dangers to agricultural food production and water resources. These are key elements within any society seeking to achieve self-sufficiency and qualitative development. 

Whether the G20 countries can effectively urge an agreement on the climate crisis is immaterial when the western states remain capable of dictating the terms of global financial transactions and trade. The tension and dysfunctional character of the UN Climate Summit mirrors the broader body which takes contradictory positions on important questions such as Palestine statehood and lifting the U.S. blockade against Cuba.

The solution to the climate crisis will be resolved by the people who are the most severely affected. Their combined organizational will is the only power which can halt the degradation of the earth and the destruction of its people.