1 week Ago By Felicity Bradstock
The annual COP climate summits aim to progress international efforts to reduce the impact of climate change, support a green transition, and decarbonise economies worldwide. However, the organisers have come under fire in recent years for failing to prevent the environmental degradation associated with the conference. Unsustainable development in host countries, high numbers of fossil fuel lobbyist attendees, and the use of private jets to attend the event are just some of the criticisms of the summit.
This year’s COP30 climate summit is set to be held in November in Brazil, an oil-rich country in South America with a long history in fossil fuels. Under former president Jair Bolsonaro, little climate progress was seen in Brazil, as he pursued a . During his presidency, the deforestation of the rainforest increased year on year, with 3,988 km 2 of the Amazon – an area the size of New York City – lost in the first six months of 2022 alone.
However, since coming to power in 2023, President Lula da Silva has promised to , although he has also doubled down on the country’s oil ambitions. In March, it came to light that a new four-lane highway was being built in the Amazon, in preparation for COP30 to be held in the Brazilian city of Belém, destroying tens of thousands of acres of protected land. The city will host over 50,000 people, including world leaders.
The government has said that the development of the highway is sustainable, but local communities and environmentalists are not convinced. Residents in the region complain that they have not received compensation for the development of land, which many rely on for their livelihoods. Meanwhile, scientists are concerned that the road will leave two disconnected areas of forest, which could fragment the ecosystem and disrupt the movement of wildlife.
President Lula has said the summit will be historic because it is “a COP in the Amazon, not a COP about the Amazon”. Lula hopes the conference will help showcase the needs of the Amazon region as well as demonstrate the government’s commitment to protecting the rainforest to the world. The highway, Avenida Liberdade, was originally proposed in 2012 but has been repeatedly delayed due to environmental concerns.
However, the COP30 summit has put several infrastructure projects in the region back on the table. The Pará state government's infrastructure secretary, Adler Silveira, the highway was one of 30 projects happening in the Belém to “prepare” and “modernise” it, so that “we can have a legacy for the population and, more importantly, serve people for COP30 in the best possible way”. It is not the first time that the COP summits have been criticised on an environmental basis.
In recent years, the climate summit has been hosted by several oil-rich countries, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Azerbaijan. Environmentalists and leading climate figures have criticised host countries for allowing thousands of fossil fuel lobbyists to be present at the event. In COP29 in Azerbaijan, more than 1,700 coal, oil, and gas lobbyists attended the summit, which many said undermined the efforts of the conference.
A group of influential climate policy experts, including the former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, and the former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, wrote to the UN demanding change. Their letter , “It is now clear that the COP is no longer fit for purpose. We need a shift from negotiation to implementation.
” Ahead of COP29, a video was leaked showing one of the core members of the Azerbaijan government’s organising team appearing to offer to help facilitate fossil fuel deals. During the summit’s opening ceremony, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said that his country’s oil and gas were “a gift of God”. In addition, several world leaders have been to travel to previous COP summits.
In 2022, during COP27 in Egypt, data from FlightRadar24 showed that 36 private jets landed at Sharm el-Sheikh between the 4 th and 6 th of November, at the start of the summit, and a further 64 flew into Cairo, 24 of which had come from Sharm el-Sheikh. The website suggested there were likely more scheduled private flights that it could not track. This was lower than the number of private jets transporting leaders to COP26 in Glasgow, U.
K. the previous year but still contributed significant carbon emissions. As several world powers work together to take climate action through the annual COP summits, greater efforts must be made to reduce the environmental impact of the event and encourage greater participation from climate leaders.
Significant progress has been seen each year from the COP summits, but the high attendance rate of fossil fuel lobbyists and the unsustainable development of host countries could threaten this progress..
