Oil Change International Media Advisory – COP29 Day 6

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 16, 2024

Contact: 

Nicole Rodel, Oil Change International (in Baku) – [email protected] / +27842570627 

Valentina Stackl, Oil Change International (ET – remote) – [email protected] +17342766260

Oil Change International Media Advisory – COP29 Day 6

As COP29 enters its sixth day, negotiators release the latest draft text for the new climate finance goal (NCQG). A critical opportunity emerges to secure real climate action through public grants rather than problematic private finance schemes. New Oil Change International analysis exposes how current private sector approaches are failing: private investors contribute just 85 cents for every public dollar in Global South energy transition projects—not the $5-7 multiplier that rich countries claim. While the draft text includes promising options for public climate finance of at least $1 trillion annually and support for fossil fuel phaseout, it also contains concerning provisions that could shift responsibility to private investors and deepen the Global South’s debt crisis. With negotiations still fluid, countries must reject this private sector smokescreen and commit to delivering the public grants needed for a just transition. The stark gap between private finance rhetoric and reality makes clear: only robust public funding can deliver climate action at the speed and scale required.

This media advisory outlines: 

• Today’s key events and releases:

• Press Conferences:
  • 9:00 AM Dangerous Distractions Delay Real Climate Action at COP29 (more below)
  • 14:00 PM LNG press conference (w/ U.S. Sen. Ed Markey)

• Actions:
  • 13:00 COP29 Climate Justice Coalition Global Day(s) of Action Rally (Plenary Caplan, Zone D)

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

• Releases:
  • Oil Change International to Release New Research on Climate Finance
    • COP29 Explainer: Why we can’t rely on the private sector to finance the energy transition – A new analysis showing why private sector finance alone cannot deliver a just energy transition
    • Shifting and unlocking trillions for a just energy transition on the road to COP29 – An updated briefing on how COP29 depends on countries agreeing on a new climate finance target of at least $1 trillion per year in grants and grant-equivalent finance, with new data showing a private finance focused ‘investment’ or ‘mobilization’ target is not a viable replacement for this. 
  • Latest NCQG draft: Response to the latest New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance
  • Activists denounce presence of big polluters at COP29 in front of OPEC and GEFC pavilions

Today’s key events and releases (expanded):

PRESS CONFERENCE: Dangerous Distractions Delay Real Climate Action at COP29
Leading climate experts and advocates will reveal how oil and gas corporations and their government enablers are using dangerous distractions to delay real climate action, while continuing to poison communities and profit from fossil fuels. During the press conference, experts will announce the number of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) lobbyists at COP29, share how carbon offsets and markets are distracting from real climate finance, and present new research that exposes how public money is wasted on failed schemes instead of funding real solutions to the climate crisis.
WHEN: November 16, 2024, 9:00 AM (Baku time)
WHERE: Natavan Press Conference Room, Zone D
WHO:

• Rachel Kennerley, CIEL (Chair)
• Tamra Gilbertson, Indigenous Environmental Network
• Eric Njunga, Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth
• Al Johnson-Kurts, Oil Change International

Al Johnson-Kurts, Oil Change International, 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.” 

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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