Monday 11 November 2024 – With concerns mounting that this year’s UN climate talks have been hijacked by oil and gas interests, Global Witness has taken over cop29.com to demand that fossil fuel companies pay up for their role in causing climate breakdown.
Their campaign is also being backed by a number of celebrities, activists and campaign groups. These include Ireland’s former president Mary Robinson, Hollywood director Adam McKay, Star Wars actress Rosario Dawson, Harry Potter star Bonnie Wright, musicians Brian Eno and Jon Hopkins and a number of prominent climate activists including Vanessa Nakate, Kumi Naidoo and Luisa Neubauer.
This year’s COP29 summit is crucial for determining how much wealthier nations should pay poorer countries to help them adapt to climate change. But those backing the "Payback Time" campaign are demanding that fossil fuel companies should be made to pay up too – in recognition of the vast sums of money Big Oil has made from fuelling climate collapse.
The profits that fossil fuel companies make eclipse what is needed to pay for the damage that caused by extreme weather events linked to climate change.
In 2022 alone the oil and gas industry made USD $4 trillion in pre-tax profits. This is 10 times the annual cost of climate damages in developing countries – estimated to be upwards of $400 billion per year. The UNFCCC’s Loss and Damage Fund, designed to help poorer nations hit hardest by climate disasters, currently contains less than 0.2% of this $400 billion figure.
Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland said:
“People need money to rebuild and adapt to our increasingly extreme climate. But right now the oil and gas companies fuelling climate collapse are getting away scot-free – making immense profits from products they have known for decades would harm the planet. It’s high time we made them pay up."
Alice Harrison, Head of Fossil Fuel campaigning at Global Witness said:
“We’ve taken over cop29.com to demand that Big Oil finally pays for the climate crisis it helped create. From super-charged hurricanes and record-breaking heat, to devastating floods, we’re seeing the catastrophic effects of fossil fuel emissions all around us.
“It’s time to end this injustice and make fossil fuel companies pay for the damage they’ve done. We need trillions of dollars and these are some of the richest companies on the planet – they can afford to pay.”
Oil, gas and coal account for nearly 90% of carbon dioxide emissions, which are cooking the planet and supercharging extreme weather events. For decades, many fossil fuel companies ignored their own scientists’ warnings that they were causing irrevocable damage to the climate. What’s more, they funded campaigns of climate denial to keep their profits flowing, and spent billions lobbying governments to delay climate action around the world.
Oil firms love to hype up their green credentials, but in reality they only invest a tiny fraction of their profits into green energy. In 2022, only 1.5% of global investments in renewables came from oil and gas firms.
Global Witness were able to acquire the cop29.com site thanks to the principled actions of its previous owners – an Indian couple who used the domain for their family business. Although they were offered a significant sum by Azerbaijan’s COP29 team for the site, these small business owners were worried about climate breakdown, and so decided to let Global Witness have it instead.
Luana is an Indigenous climate activist whose community was impacted by the recent devastating floods in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. She told Global Witness:
“We Indigenous Peoples are at the forefront of this battle. Everyone is afraid of the rain now, and all four seasons can happen on the same day. It’s the big companies who are responsible. They are largely to blame for global warming and climate change, so they should pay more, right? In the meantime, we’re going to keep fighting for this cause, which is not only ours but humanity’s. We’re going to keep fighting to stop the climate crisis and you’re all welcome to join us.”