Oil Change International Media Advisory – COP29 Day 3

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) sent a ‘red alert‘ warning that 2024 would be the hottest year on record. Meanwhile COP29 negotiations in Baku revealed stark contradictions in global climate action. Behind closed doors, negotiators rushed through controversial carbon market rules that could benefit fossil fuel companies, while UK Labour leader Keir Starmer’s NDC announcement fell short of matching ambition with action. These developments underscore the critical need for the $1 trillion climate finance goal being debated at COP29 – not as private sector investments or loans that deepen the Global South’s debt crisis, but as direct grants to enable a just transition away from fossil fuels. With rising temperatures making the stakes clearer than ever, the question remains whether wealthy nations will finally deliver the financial support needed to turn last year’s historic fossil fuel phaseout agreement into reality.

This media advisory outlines: 

• Today’s key events and releases:

• • • Press Conference: 11:00 AM – The Trillion Dollar Price Tag: A finance goal that reflects the needs of Global South countries (more below) 
    • Press Release: 6:00 AM- Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter factsheet (more below)
    • Upcoming Press Release: Countries follow up cut in international fuel fossil finance with clean energy pledge (12:30 PM)
  • Tomorrow’s key events and publications (November 14): 
    • Press Conference: 17:30 PM- Press Conference: How Fossil Fuel Companies Profit from Genocide

• Upcoming media reactives:
  • November 14: Reaction to Azeri/Brazil oil money fund launch

• Yesterday’s reactions, in case you missed them: 

• • Shell ruling: Activists “Just Getting Started” on Climate Lawsuits Despite Shell Judgement
  • Response to UK’s NDC announcement: Oil Change International response to Keir Starmer’s speech at COP29 announcing the UK’s NDC target

Press Conference: 11:00 AM – The Trillion Dollar Price Tag: A finance goal that reflects the needs of Global South countries
When Wednesday 13 November, 11:00 
Where COP29 Press Conference – Natavan, Area D – UNFCCC Livestream Link
Statement:
Bronwen Tucker, Oil Change International Public Finance manager said:
“The deadline for a new climate finance goal at COP29 means the rich countries most responsible for the climate crisis are on the hook to pay their fair share for fossil fuel phase out and other global climate action. To avoid paying the trillions per year in public funding that they owe, governments like the UK, Canada, and Germany are arguing that the private sector can cover most of the bill for a just energy transition. But a decade plus of this approach shows it is not realistic. The private sector-first approach has been tried and tested and is not generating the scale, distribution, or quality of funding needed.”

New Data: Oil & Gas ‘Decarbonization Charter’ masks massive fossil fuel expansion in 2024
New data analysis exposes how big oil and gas companies’ “Decarbonization Charter,” launched at COP28, is a dangerous distraction from the urgent need to rapidly phase out fossil fuels. The analysis, released by Oil Change International and Zero Carbon Analytics, finds that Charter members have approved massive oil and gas expansion plans since signing on.
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Statement:
David Tong, Global Industry Campaign Manager at Oil Change International, said:
“Since signing the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, these companies have lit the fuse on a 5-billion-tonne carbon bomb. Their approval of 68 new oil and gas projects this year alone is a commitment to nearly $250 billion in fossil fuel expansion and locks in climate pollution equivalent to an entire year of U.S. carbon emissions. This is a pledge in words only; these corporations are fueling the climate crisis.”

Spokespeople and areas of focus
At COP29, reach out to us to connect with spokespeople to cover:

• • Financing a just transition: NCQG, fossil fuel subsidies and finance, financial architecture reform, Clean Energy Transition Partnership, Global Clean Power Alliance, OECD, MDB and G20 finance announcements.
  • Fossil fuel phaseout: Troika fossil fuel expansion, Nationally Determined Contributions, diplomacy and negotiations, abatement, hypocrisy via oil and gas expansion, 1.5ºC scenarios
  • Industry and False Solutions: Industry pledges, Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, IEA / WEO, CCS, False Solutions Subsidies, Kick Polluters Out
  • United States: U.S. Election, U.S. fair share NDC, LNG, certified gas, U.S. subsidies, U.S. Congress
  • Africa: Resistance to oil and gas in Africa, oil and gas expansion in Africa

OCI has spokespeople available on the ground at COP29 for interviews and press panels, as well as representatives in alternative timezones for those journalists not in attendance in Baku. 

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