As the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) starts in Baku, Azerbaijan, ARTICLE 19 calls on states to reinvigorate their commitments to multilateralism, human rights and to effectively tackle climate change as agreed in the Paris Climate Agreement. By advancing transparency, accountability, and protection of the right to freedom of expression and access to information, COP29 can serve as a pivotal moment for global climate governance. ARTICLE 19 urges states to reaffirm their commitment to a human rights-based approach to climate action, ensuring that transparency is embedded in all aspects of the global response to the climate crisis, and that advocates for the protection of the environment are able to participate in decision-making.
As the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) opens in Baku, Azerbaijan on 11 November, ARTICLE 19 calls on states reinvigorate their commitments to multilateralism, human rights protection, and effective climate action, as pledged in the Paris Climate Agreement. This year’s focus on climate finance underscores the critical need to establish a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for climate funding, ensuring adequate financial support for a fast and fair energy transition, particularly in the Global South, where the impacts of climate change are felt the most.
ARTICLE 19 believes that efforts to address climate change and negotiate a new finance climate target must be firmly rooted in transparency and accountability and protection of human rights. Transparency is not a single policy tool but instead encompasses a wide range of obligations that are critical to responses to the climate, public participation, protection of civic space, and safety of public watchdogs.
ARTICLE 19 calls on COP29 participants and state parties to take the following action:
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Commit to transparency in climate financing: Transparency is essential for meaningful climate action. We urge states to ensure transparent allocation and tracking of funds under the NCQG, including disclosure of funding sources, mechanisms (grants or loans), and monitoring protocols to enable public oversight and accountability. This openness is crucial in addressing threats to indigenous communities and other populations disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis. With transparency as a cornerstone, public oversight can help ensure that climate finance serves its intended purpose in a responsible and equitable manner.
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Expand corporate transparency and accountability in environmental activities: We recall that the right to information (RTI), enshrined in international human rights and environmental treaties and expanded in jurisprudence of regional human rights courts, grants individuals and communities the right to scrutinise corporate activities affecting their health and the environment. This scrutiny enables informed public discourse, policy change, and consumer action, and is an essential tool for timely and effective responses to climate emergencies. We are also mindful that new industries, including digital corporations with energy-intensive data centres and large-scale agriculture, also significantly affect climate outcomes. Therefore, we urge states to broaden the scope of RTI to cover industries beyond fossil fuels, incorporating transparency obligations for sectors including digital technology, agriculture, and transportation that significantly impact climate change.
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Strengthen legal protections for environmental defenders: We believe that COP29 provides an urgent platform to reiterate the need for states to protect public participation in environmental matters. Environmental advocates, including journalists, civil society organisations, environmental and human rights defenders, and indigenous communities, play an indispensable role in advocating for stronger climate action. Yet they face unprecedented levels of threat, from defamation campaigns and online harassment to violent attacks and arbitrary detention, including in Azerbaijan, the host of COP29. We are deeply concerned about the continued detention of environmental defender Anar Mammadli, who has been held on alleged charges of smuggling since April 2024. Alarmingly, civil society groups report close to 200 murders of environmental defenders in 2023 alone, a figure that likely underestimates the true extent of the crisis. States must prioritise the protection of environmental defenders who demand action on pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change, often at great personal risk. ARTICLE 19 calls on states to stop these attacks. We also call on the government of Azerbaijan to immediately release all environmental defenders, journalists, and protesters detained in the lead-up to COP29.