‘Cut the theatrics’: UN climate chief tells COP29 negotiators to focus on solutions as talks enter final week

This article is published in association with United Nations.

As COP29 climate talks in Baku enter their final week, the UN climate chief told negotiators on Monday to “cut the theatrics,” get down to business and hammer out a new finance deal to compensate countries for climate-driven damages and pay for a clean-energy transition.

“We can’t lose sight of the forest because we’re tussling over individual trees,” said Simon Stiell, urging delegates to wrap up “less contentious issues” as early as possible this week, so there is enough time for the major political decisions.

COP29 opened in the Azerbaijan capital this past Monday with the main goal of reaching agreement on scaling up finance to address the worsening impacts of global warming.

Despite an early breakthrough on standards that will pave the way for a UN-governed carbon market, the talks on climate finance have been slow and contentions, with delegations digging in their heels rather than looking for common ground.

Time for business, not brinkmanship

“Bluffing, brinksmanship, and pre-mediated playbooks” are burning up precious time and running down the goodwill needed for an ambitious package, emphasized Mr. Stiell, who is the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which convenes the annual COP meetings.

The stakes are too high for “an outbreak of ‘you-first-ism’…where groups of parties dig in and refuse to move on one issue, until others move elsewhere,” he said and the only way to get the job done is “if Parties are prepared to step forward in parallel, bringing us closer to common ground.”

Mr. Stiell’s plea comes after UN Secretary-General António Guterres also voiced concern over the state of negotiations at COP29, noting that countries must agree to an ambitious climate finance goal that meets the scale of the challenge faced by developing countries.

Speaking to reporters in Rio on Sunday ahead of the G20 summit, the UN chief said that “now is the time for leadership by example from the world’s largest economies and emitters. Failure is not an option.”

Beyond the negotiations, other meetings and high-level events at COP29 touched on a range of topics – from the climate-health nexus to human development and education.

UN News/Nargiz Shekinskaya

Catarina from Brazil (left) and Francisco from Columbia (right) call for a UN children’s COP during a UNICEF press conference on youth-led climate action, held at COP29 in Baku

‘No decisions about us without us!’ 

Children and young people also made their voices heard at several lively and well attended events, as they called for protection from the effects of climate change; measures to prevent further destruction of the planet; and stepped-up efforts to preserve nature.

They urged decision-makers at COP29 to give them a seat at the climate negotiating table and to urgently consider organizing a separate UN climate conference specifically for children.

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), climate change impacts the well-being of nearly 1 billion children – half of the world’s child population. Air pollution, infectious diseases, environmental degradation, and extreme weather events compromise children’s health, hinder their education, and deprive them of the nutrition they need to grow and thrive.

During heatwaves, young children are at risk of dehydration because their bodies cannot regulate temperature effectively. Floods and droughts impoverish families, leaving children to bear the consequences.

“Floods force school closures in Liberia, and children miss school,” said Juanita Tamba of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, the world’s largest volunteer movement for the empowerment of girls and young women.

“And during the dry season, we have to travel long distances to fetch water, and girls often face violence while trying to get water,” she told UN News.

UNICEF estimates that climate-related disasters cause approximately 40 million children to miss school each year, and the number is rising. 

Zunaira, from Pakistan, one of the youngest participants in Baku, is attending COP29 with the support of UNICEF.  

She told UN News: “When there are floods in my country, resources become limited, and there are not enough for everyone. Children, especially girls, are the most affected.”

Speaking at a UNICEF press conference on youth-led climate action, Rasul, a youth from Azerbaijan highlighted the dire condition of the Caspian Sea. “Due to rising temperatures and prolonged heatwaves, the water level in this amazing body of water is falling,” he said.  

Baku is situated on the coast of the Caspian, the biggest inland body of water in the world. Rasul observed that the effects on Azerbaijan’s people are becoming more noticeable as the shoreline recedes, particularly the rising temperatures: “Both summer and winter in Azerbaijan are getting warmer.” 

‘The future needs a voice!’

Catarina, a 16-year-old environmental activist from Salvador, Brazil, a city on the Atlantic Ocean, also shared her experiences.  

A passionate surfer since childhood, she noted: “When I was nine years old, I actually felt the ocean warming. I was constantly in the water and… I realized something was wrong when [it] was much hotter than normal in areas I frequented. Then I noticed coral reefs covered in white spots – coral bleaching was something I had never seen before.”

Despite her young age, Catarina is an experienced climate activist. When she was just 12 years old, she joined other children in filing a complaint with the Geneva-based UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to protest government inaction on the climate crisis.

“It was the first time children brought a global complaint through a UN mechanism. We denounced five countries, and as a result, the UN officially recognized that children’s rights are affected by the lack of climate action,” Catarina said.

In an emotional speech, she emphasized: “Children have things to say, and we know how to say them. We need the space… not at COP30. We need a COP for children right now!”  

According to Catarina, she was fairly certain that it might be too late to make significant change by the time she started her job or rose to a position of influence.

“Effective actions must happen now. That’s why children need to be included in the decision-making process. If we are the future, then this future needs to have a voice,” she concluded. 

UNICEF Executive Director Katherine Russell has echoed Catarina’s sentiments, saying earlier this month: “At COP29 and through Nationally Determined Contributions, governments must prioritize children’s rights,”  

“Children need to be included in the solutions, and global leaders must make health care, education, water, and sanitation systems more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Now is the time to act.”

Under the Paris Agreement, countries are required to submit updated national climate action plans, or NDC’s, next year at COP30.  

In that context, UNICEF has warned that less than half of the current plans are child- or youth-sensitive, and only three percent were developed through participatory processes involving children.

Against this background, 16-year-old Payton Esau from Canada brought a manifesto to the climate conference, signed by 800 of her peers.  

“We demand that governments communicate in a language young people can understand so we know what measures are being taken to combat climate change. Governments must act without delay to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius,” Payton told UN News.

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