COP29: the pantomime begins

This year’s COP summit is off to a farcical start, with the head of the conference caught brokering lucrative fossil fuel deals, and many world leaders not even bothering to show up at all! The capitalists are incapable of solving the climate crisis.

[Originally published at communist.red]

Over the last few months, international news has been dominated by extreme weather events caused by climate change.

From the hurricanes in the US to the floods in Valencia, the climate crisis is destroying more lives and livelihoods than ever before, and fuelling public rage over government inaction.

Given the severity of this mess, people must surely be jumping for joy that heads of state from around the world have all come together in Azerbaijan for COP29?

Not quite.

Soltanov affirmed that Azerbaijan’s “doors are open” for any and all climate solutions – including ones from oil and gas companies / Image: IAEA Imagebank, Wikimedia Commons

If there was anyone out there still paying attention to COP summits, this year’s conference is quickly proving how much of a farce the ‘answers’ of the ruling class are.

For starters, the summit is being held in a bona fide ‘petro-state’, with oil accounting for 90 percent of its exports. This is about as tone-deaf as hosting a veganism convention in a slaughterhouse.

What’s more, the chief executive of COP29, Elnur Soltanov, was recently exposed for having secret discussions promoting lucrative investment deals in SOCAR, the largest oil and gas company in Azerbaijan.

During these meetings, Soltanov affirmed that Azerbaijan’s “doors are open” for any and all climate solutions – including ones from oil and gas companies – casually mentioning that “we have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed.”

The fact that he sits on the board of SOCAR, as well as being Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister, is surely a pure coincidence.

These farcical proceedings are becoming a yearly tradition. Last year’s COP summit was led by Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

The key item on the agenda this year is new ‘climate finance’ targets. The UN estimates that a staggering $1 trillion is needed per year to ‘aid’ developing countries in their climate action.

But behind the green-washed language of ‘climate finance’ lies the interests of imperialism. The sole purpose of investment under capitalism is to reap plenty of interest – regardless of whether the loans are eco-friendly. And foreign aid from rich to poor nations always has strings attached.

Where this $1 trillion will come from is anyone’s guess. Countries across the world are already drowning in public and private debt. Perhaps it will turn up behind the back of someone’s sofa.

The leaders of the world’s largest economies – Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, and EU commissioner Ursula von der Leyen – have foregone their usual symbolic attendance in favour of symbolically not bothering to turn up at all.

But maybe that’s for the best. With armed conflicts, trade wars, and imperialist rivalry heating up everywhere, their usual prattle about ‘international cooperation’ probably wouldn’t land very well.

29 COP summits have come and gone, and the crisis is only getting worse.

Last month, the UN Emissions Gap report revealed that, even if current policies are implemented, the average global temperature could increase by 3.1°C by 2100. This is more than double the target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The capitalists are incapable of solving the climate catastrophe. We must kill their system, before their system kills us!