Baku climate talks must be a turning point for our burning planet – Türk

We are in the fight of our lives.

The triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss threatens everyone, individually and collectively. The survival of communities, countries and even humanity itself hangs in the balance.

Our overheating planet is the greatest generator of human rights violations ever – and this is just the start.

Around the world, people are being forced into poverty and hunger by climate chaos. Families are seeing their homes and livelihoods swept away by repeated floods. Storms and droughts are erasing communities. And future generations will inherit a more unpredictable and dangerous world.

Since the dawn of the industrial age, the extraction and burning of fossil fuels has stoked the engine of inequality.

That pattern continues today. Some of the least developed countries in the world are suffering outsize damage from climate impacts.

And within those countries, certain groups are disproportionately affected, including Indigenous Peoples, migrants and refugees, women and girls, and people with disabilities.

The climate negotiations that will resume in Azerbaijan must see a new approach, based on human rights, equity and equality.

That is why I have written to global leaders, calling on them to work together urgently to cut emissions, and to support those facing climate chaos.

That is what the moment demands. And that is what science and the world’s people demand.

Time after time, scientists have unequivocally called for urgent action to keep the planet safe.

Time after time, the world’s people have demanded climate justice.

And time after time, leaders have thrown away opportunities to act.

While they bicker and compete, the world is burning.

Meanwhile, climate activists, human rights defenders, and young people everywhere are showing true leadership – taking responsibility and highlighting solutions.

They see the hypocrisy in claims there is no money for climate action, while countries pour billions into developing weapons.

They point out that instead of polluters paying, they are being paid trillions in subsidies.

And climate activists are fighting for accountability – from the International Court of Justice, to regional courts in the Americas and Europe, and local and national justice systems around the world.

A strong, global climate and environmental justice movement may be our last, best hope.

But instead of learning from climate activists, many governments are criminalizing, persecuting, harassing and silencing them.

COP29 in Baku must be a turning point

We need a laser focus, at the highest political level, on stopping this crisis in its tracks; averting the tipping points that could lead to climate catastrophe; and protecting those already feeling the heat.

Leaders – starting with the G20 countries that are the source of 80 percent of emissions – must agree on the rapid and equitable phase-out of fossil fuels.

COP29 must see an ambitious finance outcome that protects the poorest and most marginalized, and guarantees resources for climate action, including mitigation and adaptation.

Loss and damage is a human rights issue that requires a much stronger focus.

And all countries must commit to protecting climate and environmental activists, and to including those most affected by this crisis in their decision-making.

Together, we must be even more forceful in calling for an end to the fossil fuel era, for justice, and for accountability.