Says COP29 is “Greenwashing” Politicians and Countries Abusing Human Rights
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg today called on officials and journalists taking part in COP29, currently underway in Baku, to visit the Armenian hostages and prisoners of war who are being held captive there.
Thunberg made the statement during a protest titled “Stop Greenwashing Genocide!” organized near the United Nations office in Yerevan, Armenia.
The environmental activist has vehemently refused to take part in the 29th Conference of the Parties due to the fact that this year’s summit is being hosted by Azerbaijan.
“I think we have to stop pretending that conferences like the COP are leading to any even closely meaningful actions that we need. For example, last year we saw an all time high of greenhouse gas emissions, and 2024 is set to be the hottest year ever recorded. These COP processes are failing us,” Thunberg told reporters at the protest.
“We need to stop pretending that these conferences that are being held, again, in countries with no respect for basic human rights—that these countries who get to set the agenda, that their interests are people and the planet’s wellbeing. Of course that is bullshit,” Thunberg said, as she, once again, expressed her anger at Azerbaijan, a petrol state that continues to commit human rights and environmental violations, hosting COP29.
“Having these conferences as greenwash platforms for politicians to pretend that they are taking action…Of course, it is also greenwashing the human rights abuses that these countries are committing. So it is both greenwashing the climate action and greenwashing their ethnic cleansing,” she said at the protest.
During the demonstration, protesters hand delivered a letter to representatives of Armenia’s UN office.
Addressed to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, the letter urged Guterres to travel to Nagorno-Karabakh and inquire as to why the native Armenian population fled from there. It also asked him to personally visit the Armenian hostages and POWs being illegally held captive in Baku prisons.
A group of former leaders, climate experts and scientists also published an open letter today calling for the COP process to be reformed, saying it “cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity.”
