Cooperatives and COP29

This year’s Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) will be hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan during the month of November. The process is already filled with controversy, despite being early in the year.

The choice of another oil-producing and exporting nation, following Dubai last year, was not well received by many, who fear that the most important climate negotiations are being hijacked by the fossil fuel industry. These fears seemed even more justified when the government of Azerbaijan nominated Mukhtar Babayev, the current environmental minister, who has a decades-long career in one of the largest oil companies in the country, as COP29 President. Unsurprisingly, Babayev nominated many of his colleagues from the industry to the committee responsible for the organization of the conference.

No women were included in the committee.

After strong backlash regarding the composition of the committee, Mr. Babayev retreated and appointed twelve women, but the damage has been done and the message is clear.

At last year’s COP, countries agreed to “transition away” from fossil fuels, a statement that some lauded as an unprecedented achievement, showing that phasing-out fossil fuels is inevitable. Others, like me, are more skeptical and see it as an insignificant rhetorical concession with no real consequences, particularly if one considers that most countries have not complied with other more concrete commitments and obligations. A very controversial issue that will continue to be discussed.

This year, though, the main focus seems to be financing for adaptation and mitigation of climate change effects. A very important topic, no doubt, considering that these effects are inevitable since not much has been done to avoid them. It is well-known that the poorest nations and the poorest populations will be the ones suffering the worst impacts of climate change, and they will have no resources to deal with it. Finding sustainable financial solutions is crucial.

Where does the international cooperative movement stand on all these issues?

I know that there are thousands of cooperatives around the world engaged in the fight against climate change and that they are managing their businesses, promoting social initiatives, and mobilizing people towards sustainable development. But what about the global movement?

It is time for international cooperative organizations to take a stand on these controversial issues and have a clear policy position. It is not enough, in my view, to state the importance of the cooperative model to achieve sustainable development objectives, avoiding the more controversial topics. Cooperative institutions should be more involved with other like-minded organizations in these crucial policy debates and in the global processes, otherwise they will continue to be seen as marginal and non-impactful. The international cooperative movement needs to have a clear policy position.

Now is the moment to define such policy position, a strategy of engagement, and for allocating resources to back it up, so that there is strong cooperative representation at the COP in November. This must include a stand on the most important themes being discussed by the global community: the phasing-out of fossil fuels; carbon emissions reduction targets; enforcement mechanisms; funding for adaptation and mitigation, etc.

The cooperative movement must better assert itself as a force for the environment.