Papua New Guinea to boycott ‘waste of time’ UN climate summit

SYDNEY - Papua New Guinea will boycott November’s UN climate summit, its top diplomat said on Oct 31, branding the negotiations aimed at curbing global warming “a total waste of time” because of the actions of big polluting nations.

“There’s no point going if we are falling asleep because of jet lag because we’re not getting anything done,” Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said in an interview with AFP ahead of the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan.

“All the big polluters of the world promise and commit millions to assist in climate relief and support. And I can tell you now it’s all going to consultants.”

The island of New Guinea is home to the third-largest expanse of rainforest on the planet, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and is often dubbed one of the “lungs of the earth”.

Impoverished, flanked by ocean, and already prone to natural disasters, Papua New Guinea is also considered to be highly vulnerable to the unfolding perils of climate change.

“COP is a total waste of time,” Mr Tkatchenko said.

“We are sick of the rhetoric as well as the merry-go-round of getting absolutely nothing done over the last three years.

“We are the third-biggest rainforest nation in the world. We are sucking up the pollutants of these major countries. And they are getting away with it scot-free.”

The COP summit in 2015 hammered out the landmark Paris Agreement, under which almost every country in the world has agreed to slash emissions to limit soaring global temperatures.

But subsequent gatherings have been dogged by growing criticism, stoked by a perception that big polluters are using their sway to limit further climate action.

Meanwhile, adaptation funds set up through COP to help developing nations have been accused of sluggish bureaucracy that fails to grasp the urgency of the crisis.

Civil society groups banded together in 2023 to urge a boycott of the COP summit hosted by the United Arab Emirates, claiming the meeting would “greenwash” the state’s poor climate credentials.

Underwhelmed by proposed emissions cuts, dozens of African nations led a temporary walkout of developing nations during the 2009 COP talks in Copenhagen.

And Ukraine has pressed its allies to avoid the 2024 summit if Russian leader Vladimir Putin shows face.

But Papua New Guinea is one of the first nations to voice a full-throated call to boycott the annual gatherings altogether.

“Why are we spending all this money going to the other side of the world going to these talkfests,” said Mr Tkatchenko.

Mr Tkatchenko said this stance had been applauded by fellow Pacific nations.

Low-lying Pacific island states such as Tuvalu and Kiribati are severely threatened by even moderate sea level rises.

“I’m speaking up on behalf of the smaller island states that are worse off than Papua New Guinea. They were getting no traction and acknowledgement at all,” said Mr Tkatchenko.

Papua New Guinea would instead seek to strike its own climate deals through bilateral discussions, said Mr Tkatchenko, flagging that negotiations were already under way with Singapore.

“With like-minded countries like Singapore, we can do 100 times more than COP.

“They have a big carbon footprint, and we would like to think about how they can work with Papua New Guinea to fix that up.”

Papua New Guinea is one of five Pacific nations involved in a pivotal International Court of Justice case that will test whether polluters can be sued for neglecting their climate obligations.

A key meeting ahead of COP29 ended in frustration earlier in October, with countries making little progress over how to fund a new finance deal for poorer nations.

COP – or conference of parties – is the top United Nations climate change conference, an annual summit in which nations look to hammer out legally binding climate commitments. AFP