More than 200 climate campaign groups will issue a joint call for reforms to the way United Nations (UN) climate talks are conducted, saying that the negotiations have “reached breaking point”.
The campaigners want decisions to be adopted by voting rather than requiring consensus among governments, as well as an end to what they call the “trade show” aspect of COP climate talks. They are also proposing measures to reduce polluting industries’ influence in a set of demands to be released at the Bonn mid-year talks on Monday afternoon.
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Lien Vandamme, a senior campaigner at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), said in a statement: “For 30 years, the climate negotiations have systematically failed to deliver climate justice, undermined international law and allowed the fossil fuel industry to write the rules.”
Rachitaa Gupta, coordinator of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, said that the UN’s climate system “must fundamentally reimagine itself”. “It must reform,” she added. “Anything short of this is continued complicity in the climate crisis.”
Consensus not voting
Unlike with many other UN conventions, decisions at the annual conference of the parties (COPs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) require consensus. While that is not clearly defined, it is interpreted to mean at least the vast majority of governments.
This stems from the first COP in 1995, when fossil fuel-exporting governments like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait blocked the adoption of voting rules. The rules for approving decisions have never been formally agreed, leaving governments to require consensus by default.
“The climate process must no longer be held hostage by the narrow interests of a few,” says the “United Call”, a document of a dozen pages outlining the reform proposals. “The absence of agreed procedures for decision-making allows big polluting countries to hold the negotiations hostage,” Vandamme added.
At COP29 last year, oil-dependent nations like Saudi Arabia blocked agreement on how to follow up on COP28’s commitment to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, while developed countries watered down ambition on a new climate finance goal, with some Global South governments expressing their disappointment even after it was adopted.
In 2011, Mexico and Papua New Guinea formally proposed an amendment to the climate convention for decisions to be taken if three-quarters of governments vote in favour. But that push was unsuccessful. Adopting this amendment would itself require a vote with a three-quarters majority.
End fossil fuel influence
The groups’ statement also calls for measures to “end undue influence” on COP delegates from fossil fuel companies and other big emitters of planet-warming gases. Research from the Kick Big Polluters Out campaign estimated that 1,800 fossil fuel lobbyists attended COP29 last year, mainly as part of trade associations but also as members of government delegations.
The joint call says that the countries hosting COPs should not enter into corporate partnerships, especially with companies that have a high-carbon footprint. Previous COP presidencies have used these partnerships to help cover the costs of hosting – for example, working with energy companies like Iberdrola, SSE and SOCAR.
Vandamme said it was important to host COPs in different regions but “COP hosts needing money to organise the conference cannot be an argument to allow corporate sponsorships”. She said governments should collectively help the host nation fund it, “for example through partnerships or contributing finance to support a COP”.
COP host integrity
The joint call points out that “climate talks have been hosted in countries with problematic human rights records and significant fossil fuel interests”. The last three COPs were in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan, which are all large producers of oil and gas. The campaign groups said they want future COP presidencies to “demonstrate tangible progress on climate action”.
The COP host country is chosen by government negotiators from each of the UN’s five regional groups: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe and Others. The right to host rotates each year between the groups.
Next year is the turn of the “Western Europe and Others” group, and their negotiators are currently deciding between Australia and Turkiye. After that it will be Africa’s turn – with Nigeria bidding to host COP32 in Lagos – followed by Asia-Pacific, with India wanting to host that summit.
While the joint statement does not go into details of how to ensure that COP host nations demonstrate climate progress, Vandamme suggested that the UNFCCC could draw up a set of criteria for governments to use when they are choosing a COP country.
Governments will still decide on the location, Vandamme said. But, she added, “they should do so based on information provided by the candidate host country regarding their climate progress, as well as a commitment to respect, protect and uphold human rights, to avoid conflict of interests on the Presidency team and the COP organisation, and clarity on the logistics”.
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Recent talks in Bonn have been beset by visa issues, with many developing-country delegates struggling to get visas to enter Germany in time. “Year after year, discriminatory visa policies deny delegates access to timely visas, effectively silencing those on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” the statement said.
It calls for “a unified, simple, equitable, digital visa system with guaranteed approval within one week for all accredited participants to UNFCCC meetings”. Such systems were put in place for COP28 in Dubai and COP29 in Baku, it adds.
While individual campaign groups have called for similar reforms in the past, those organising Monday’s joint appeal said it is the first mass call for such a broad set of changes. Last year, prominent figures like former UN chief Ban Ki-moon signed a joint letter, organised by the Club of Rome network of thought leaders, calling for some of these reforms but leaving out the proposal to make decisions by voting.
