Former US Vice President Al Gore, now a climate campaigner, called it absurd that the presidency of the UN climate talks is constantly handed over to oil powers and suggested that the COP climate conference should be transformed.
He spoke about this in an exclusive interview with Euronews.
What is the problem
Gore insists on reforming the climate negotiations process. In his opinion, it is completely inappropriate for fossil fuel lobbyists to preside over the COP.
“I think it's completely absurd, for example, what we had last year when the CEO of one of the dirtiest oil companies on the planet was president of the COP,” he said, referring to the 2023 climate summit in Dubai.
The former vice president considers this a conflict of interest. He noted that the problem persists this year, as Azerbaijan, a country with 90% of its balance of payments coming from oil and gas sales, is currently presiding.
Euronews also reminded that Mukhtar Babayev, the chairman of this year's COP Conference of the Parties, worked for 20 years at the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Socar, before his appointment as Minister of
Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan.
Gore also pointed to Russia as a driving force behind the choice of Azerbaijan as the host country for the Conference of the Parties in 2024. It has vetoed the idea of holding the talks in any EU country.
"As the loudest voice in this region of the world ... it was Russia that made this choice," he is confident.
What is the possible way out
"One of the reforms I've proposed is to give the [UN] Secretary-General the power to decide who hosts the Conference of the Parties, rather than just leaving it up to voices like Vladimir Putin and letting the Middle Eastern oil nations decide , who will host," Gore said in an interview.
Separately, he focused on the problem of climate financing. The former vice president claims that developing countries have been cut off from access to private capital from investors from around the world. According to him, 85% of the financing of the clean energy revolution came from the private sector. Gore considers high credit rates and the inaccessibility of investments for poor countries to be a real problem.
He also cautioned against placing high hopes on carbon capture and storage technologies, which typically involve pumping CO2 underground or under the seabed into depleted gas fields. The activist claims that their senselessness and ineffectiveness have already been proven.
"Of course, the fossil fuel companies want to pretend that this is the solution – anything but reducing the amount of fossil fuel they burn or shrinking their markets," Gore fumed.
Earlier, EcoPolitic reported that the BASIC group is headed by China at COP29 accused developed countries in hindering their climate actions.
