Amnesty delegates are available for interview at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan from Saturday 9 - Sunday 24 November

UNFCCC must do much more than in UAE and Egypt to protect the rights of everyone taking part in the climate summit

‘The current lack of progress towards agreement on this issue is shocking …. the human rights and economic costs of maintaining the status quo are incalculable’ - Agnès Callamard

Leaders at COP29 must put human rights at the heart of all decision making and commit to massively increasing climate financing based on need and a full, fast, fair and funded phase-out of fossil fuels across all sectors, said Amnesty International ahead of the UN climate summit in Azerbaijan.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:

“The global climate crisis represents the single greatest threat to humanity. If we do not take bold, decisive and collective action today, tomorrow’s world will be increasingly unliveable.

“From droughts and wildfires to floods and supercharged storms, these devastating unnatural disasters have far too often become a regular feature of people’s lives the world over. They are bound to increase in scale, reach and intensity, ending far more lives, destroying livelihoods, and fuelling unprecedented levels of famine and forced migration. 

“It’s not too late to avert total climate breakdown, but we cannot waste another minute. Governments must build on the COP28 decision and commit to a full, fast, fair and funded fossil fuel phaseout. This will require agreement on a vastly scaled-up climate finance target to help fund just transitions to zero-carbon economies in lower income states – at least one trillion dollars a year.

“The current lack of progress towards agreement on this issue is shocking. One trillion dollars may seem expensive, but the human rights and economic costs of maintaining the status quo are incalculable. The fate of humanity depends upon it.

“The high-income countries that share the greatest responsibility for the climate crisis must negotiate in good faith to achieve an ambitious and adequate target and deliver on their commitments. They must also substantially increase financing for adaptation to the significant climate harm that’s already here and will worsen very quickly and increase substantially financing to the Fund for responding to loss and damage to help the people most impacted by the effects of global heating.”

Protect human rights at the summit

Agnès Callamard, said:

“In light of the inadequate human rights protections in the Host Country Agreement, governments must also take steps to protect freedom of expression and peaceful protest for all participants at COP29 and to limit the pernicious influence of fossil fuel lobbyists who will be ubiquitous at COP.

“Azerbaijan has a terrible track record in terms of respect for freedom of expression and dissent. It is all the more important that these rights are protected in the official UN space. Both the UNFCCC Secretariat and parties must do much more than they have did in the UAE or Egypt to ensure the safety, security and rights of all.”

Amnesty available for interview at COP29

Amnesty will have delegates at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan from 9 to 24 November, who will be available for interviews on the need to centre climate-action decisions in human rights and the Azerbaijani government’s ongoing assault on civil society.

Amnesty’s recommendations as previously made to parties to the UNFCCC and to the Paris Agreement include:

• Put human rights at the heart of all climate action decision making to ensure a rapid, equitable and just transition to zero carbon economies and protect the rights of all to life, health, food, water, sanitation, housing, decent work and a clean, healthy and sustainable environment without discrimination, which are essential to achieving climate justice;
• Massively increase climate finance, particularly for adaptation and loss and damage, in the form of grants - not loans - with those most responsible for emissions contributing the most;
• Commit to a full, fast, fair and funded fossil fuel phase out across all sectors, without relying on risky and unproven technologies or offsets that do not lead to genuine emissions reductions;
• Develop new, human rights-compliant Nationally Determined Contributions that will keep global warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, with high-income historical emitters, other high-emitting G20 countries, and other high-income fossil fuel producers going furthest and fastest;
• Protect the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly for all participants at COP29 in Azerbaijan, where freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly are severely restricted and adopt a robust conflict of interest policy to limit the influence of the fossil fuel industry.