As COP29 approaches in Baku, at least 1,500 land and environmental defenders have been killed since COP21
Photo from The Guardian by Sergei Grits/AP.
On September 10, 2024, Global Witness highlighted: “At least 1,500 defenders have been killed since the adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015” at the conclusion of the COP21 climate conference.
In October 2019, just prior to the COP25 conference in Madrid, PBI-Canada amplified at an Extinction Rebellion protest in Ottawa that Global Witness had reported that 164 land and environmental defenders killed in 2018.
Despite this and the 439 land and environmental defenders killed in the two years preceding COP26 in Scotland in 2021, the 200 defenders killed in the year prior to COP27 in Egypt, and the 177 defenders killed before COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, there has not been a single reference to land and environmental defenders in the final texts emerging from these COP conferences.
Possible language
In 2019, the United Nations Human Rights Council affirmed: “Human rights defenders, including environmental human rights defenders, must be ensured a safe and enabling environment to undertake their work free from hindrance and insecurity, in recognition of their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement.”
And yet this 42-word sentence has not made its way into the final text of any of the subsequent COP climate conference final texts.
COP29 in Azerbaijan
Now, COP29 will take place on November 11-22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the context of 196 defenders killed in 2023.
Just a few days into COP29, November 14 will mark the two-month anniversary of the murder of Guapinol River defender Juan Lopez in Honduras. He opposed the Los Pinares mining megaproject that involves the construction of a heavily-polluting petroleum coke-burning thermoelectric plant.
Thunberg will not be at COP29
With COP29 to start about a week from now, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has stated that she will not attend this conference.
Her assessment: “We can’t legitimize COP meetings in their current form. …The only thing that will come out of it is loopholes, more negotiations, and symbolic decisions that look good on paper but are really just greenwashing.”
Thunberg adds: “Every time those in power get a chance to act, they choose not to and instead listen to industries that destroy the planet and violate human rights, rather than doing what’s right. I want to spread awareness, focus on grassroots activism, and support those who are trying to make a difference.”
Canadian opposition parties won’t attend
CBC now reports: “Most of the opposition parties on Parliament Hill are ditching the high-profile annual United Nations conference on climate change this year, citing human rights concerns in the host country Azerbaijan little more than a year after the mass exodus of nearly 120,000 ethnic Armenians from their homes in the once-disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
“In statements sent to CBC News, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois also said they are not sending any representatives to the conference.”
The article adds: “In a statement issued last week, [Canadian environment minister Steven] Guilbeault’s office told CBC News no decision has been made yet ‘but it is most likely the minister will be able to attend.’”
UN Special Rapporteurs call for inclusion
United Nations Special Rapporteurs including Mary Lawlor and Michel Forst, have also noted: “While COPs should be an exemplary United Nations (UN)-led model for the safe participation of environmental defenders in international forums relating to the environment and climate change, each year environmental defenders face significant challenges for their efforts to have their voices heard in these forums.”
They add: “In demanding government action – and protesting against inaction – to address pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change, or where opposing large scale projects, including those meant to foster the energy transition such as mega dams, photovoltaic panels’ fields, or lithium mines, environmental defenders are exposed to grave risks. While the nature and levels of risks vary between countries and regions, on all continents they are increasing at a fast pace, and come from both State and non-State actors, including private companies. Among environmental defenders, small-scale and subsistence farmers, indigenous communities, women, youth, the elderly and working-class defenders are particularly at risk.”
Their statement concludes: “Environmental defenders must be properly listened to, and their words acted upon. There is no time to lose.”
Looking ahead to COP30 in Brazil
At a PBI-Canada organized webinar in December 2023 on COP28, Global Witness policy advisory Javier Garate commented: “There are big plans for organizing a parallel COP of civil society and I think it is a huge opportunity for all of us to work together towards COP30 in Brazil with all the energy to put the issues of local communities, Indigenous communities, land and environmental defenders that need to be at the centre of this conversation and to demand as we talk about climate solutions and the fight against climate change that the work, the protection, and the struggle of local communities has to be at the center of those conversations.”
Garate added: “We look forward to engaging in that parallel summit in Belém do Pará, Brazil in 2025 and share the concern that it is still two years away and that on average a land and environmental defender is killed every two days.”
While there may be little optimism about the upcoming COP29 conference in Azerbaijan, we will continue to follow it and see if a momentum does develop around COP30 that will take place November 10–21, 2025.
Further reading: Did the COP16 Biodiversity conference in Colombia make progress on the protection of environmental defenders? (PBI-Canada, November 2, 2024).
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