"Focus on Rights in Pre-COP29 Climate Talks"

Ensure Fossil Fuel Phase-Out, Civil Society Participation

Governments attending UN climate talks in Bonn from June 3 to June 13, 2024, should push for rights-respecting and ambitious climate action, Human Rights Watch said today. The Bonn Climate Change conference will lay the groundwork for negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) from November 11 to November 22, 2024.

At COP28, governments agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. At the Bonn climate talks, they should follow through on this commitment by implementing a full phaseout of all fossil fuels in a just and time-bound manner at the national level. They should also use the Bonn climate talks to press Azerbaijan, the host for the upcoming COP29, to allow civil society to demand and scrutinize climate action before, during, and after the conference. [...]

While Azerbaijan has recently invested in renewable energy, its oil and gas industry provides most of the government’s revenue. During a high-level meeting in April 2024 to prepare for COP29, President Ilham Aliyev claimed that the country’s oil and gas reserves were “a gift from God,” while announcing plans to expand gas production mainly to respond to EU market demands. The EU is a major importer of Azerbaijani gas and it signed a deal in 2022 to double gas imports from Azerbaijan by 2027.

During the same meeting, Aliyev claimed that Azerbaijan will “defend the right” of other fossil fuel-rich nations to “continue investments and production because the world needs it.” Other countries should not allow Azerbaijan to use its position as host to continue to push the expansion of fossil fuels and undermine efforts to confront the climate crisis and protect human rights, Human Rights Watch said.

Azerbaijani authorities have a longstanding record of severely curtailing freedom of expression and association, swiftly and often brutally dispersing peaceful protests, and paralyzing the ability of independent nongovernmental organizations to work with its restrictive laws and arbitrary denials of registration. A crackdown on independent voices over the past year has resulted in the arrest or sentencing of at least 25 independent journalists and civil society activists on a variety of bogus criminal charges. Almost all remain in pretrial custody.

Among those detained is a prominent human rights defender, Anar Mammadli, arrested on bogus “smuggling” charges on April 29. [...]

In July 2023, the authorities arrested Gubad Ibadoghlu, an anti-corruption activist and revenue transparency expert who focuses on Azerbaijan’s fossil fuel sector. [...] 

This reflects a troubling European trend of stifling civil society and climate activism at a time when people are increasingly calling for stronger global efforts to tackle climate change. [...] 

“Azerbaijan’s crackdown on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly raises grave concerns about whether independent members of civil society, activists, human rights defenders, and journalists at COP29 will be able to participate meaningfully before, during and after the conference,” Tilianaki said. “Robust civil society participation is important to hold governments to account and ensure ambitious COP29 outcomes.” [...]

The UN should set human rights criteria for the selection of future COP hosts, including respect for the rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. The UN should also ensure that fossil fuel industry interests do not undermine the credibility and outcome of the negotiations. [...]