UN: Developing countries will get more badges for COP29

Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), says more badges will be allocated to countries from the global south at the 29th edition of the conference of parties (COP29).

Organisers of the high-level UN conference slated for November 11 to 22, in Baku, Azerbaijan, are expected to provide participants with badges that guarantee access to various meetings and events.

Speaking on Thursday during the ministerial conference on the environment in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Stiell said the move will ensure that countries most affected by the climate crisis influence major decisions at this year’s event.

“We’ve also taken steps this year to boost the proportion of Observer organizations at COP from the global south, following the guidance from Parties at the June Meetings earlier this year,” Stiell said.

“Your role at the three Rio Convention COPs this year – and your voices in the lead-up to them – are more important than ever, to help guide our process to the highest-ambition outcomes the world needs.”

Reacting to the development, Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa (PSA), a Kenyan-based think tank, said it is right that people from vulnerable countries are given the opportunity to attend such meetings that address their needs.

He explained that according to an analysis by PSA, 50 per cent of the COP28 badges went to participants from the Western European and Other States (WEOG) bloc, despite representing only 12 percent of the global population.

This bloc comprises of countries like USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, “People in parts of the developing world only contribute a fraction of the emissions causing the climate crisis yet disproportionately suffer its impacts,” Adow said.

“Yet for too long the vast majority of COP badges have been held by people from a small part of the world but with disproportionately high emissions.  It is only right that this imbalance is now being rectified. “It is encouraging to hear Simon Stiell spelling out the huge opportunities posed by tackling the scourge of climate change, transitioning the world to clean energy and lifting millions of climate vulnerable people out of poverty.”