Dangerous Distractions Delay Real Climate Action at COP29

Baku, Azerbaijan — At the United Nations Climate Change Conference today, experts and advocates exposed how oil and gas corporations and their government enablers are more interested in appearing to act on climate change than taking real action, while continuing to poison communities and delay the transition away from fossil fuels.

Research from the Center for International Environmental Law revealed at least 480 lobbyists pushing for carbon capture have been granted access to the UN climate summit, showing how Big Oil and its government enablers are committed to selling the failing technology.

Research from Oil Change International reveals that $30 billion in public money has already been wasted over the last 40 years on failing carbon capture and fossil hydrogen projects for technologies that capture less than 0.1% of global emissions. Meanwhile, hundreds of billions more in subsidies are planned for these industry schemes that perpetuate fossil fuel extraction under the guise of climate action, all while rich nations refuse to deliver the trillions needed for real solutions to the climate crisis.

The experts called for:

• Immediate elimination of subsidies for carbon capture and fossil hydrogen
• Redirection of money to proven climate solutions, not market-based mechanisms
• A full, fast, fair, and funded fossil fuel phase-out that protects workers and communities

Rachel Kennerley, Carbon Capture Global Campaigner, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), said:
“Carbon capture and storage is nothing more than a way to greenwash polluting fossil fuel activities. CCS is unproven, unreliable and expensive. Any decisions at COP29 that legitimize CCS would lock us into a fossil fuel future risking temperature overshoot and more loss and damage. We can’t afford to allow CCS and fossil fuel lobbyists to peddle false solutions and distract from what is really needed: ending fossil fuels, fast and fairly. It’s time to confront the core driver of the climate crisis, not entertain ineffective band-aids.”

Tamra Gilbertson, Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), said:
“The Removals document of A6.4 that contains removals like CCS, BECCS, and forest offsets was rushed the first day of the COP in an unprecedented move that did not follow procedure. 20 years of failed carbon markets have resulted in Indigenous Peoples’ rights violations, land grabbing, and disproportionate impacts. We need to see an end of carbon markets, not an expansion of  carbon offsets like we are witnessing with removals.”

Eric Njuguna, Youth Climate Justice Organizer, Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth (ANGRY), said:
“Coming from a country on the frontlines of the climate crisis, the legitimization of false solutions and carbon removals through Article 6.4 is a stab in the back. These dangerous and unproven distractions extend the lifeline of the fossil fuel industry at the expense of communities in the global south, and sacrifice communities at the altar of profit. We need finance going to funding a fast, fair and just transition to people led renewable energy.”

Al Johnson-Kurts, Oil Change International (OCI), said:
“The fossil fuel industry is raking in billions in profits while our planet burns, and pushing dangerous distractions to delay the transition to renewable energy. These technologies are the new mask for the fossil fuel industry, perpetuating harm to our climate and communities.”

“Rich countries have the means to pay up well over $5 trillion a year for climate action, including by ending fossil fuel handouts, making big polluters pay, and changing unfair global financial rules. Instead, the countries who bear the biggest historical responsibility for climate change are eating up Big Oil’s lies that we should pump billions into failing technology like carbon capture, hydrogen, carbon offsets, and carbon markets instead of granting the trillions required for the real and proven solutions we need.”

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