In continuation of the daytime protest today outside the Azerbaijan embassy in Tbilisi Greta Thunberg will join forces with her Georgian hosts Tbilisi Pride, Georgian Greens and members of Plant Based Treaty Georgia, Vegan Georgia to protest COP29 which is currently taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan.
This is part a larger wave of protests around the world against the summit.
“We are here to express our collective outrage over the scandalous decision of hosting COP29 in Azerbaijan. “This decision is blatantly in violation of human rights, international law and climate justice,” stated an Armenian protester on armradio. “Azerbaijan’s abysmal record on human rights makes it unfit to host a climate conference.”
Scientists are increasingly concerned that the record-breaking CO2 emissions could put humanity’s future at risk. The COP29 Summit, which began on 11 November, is a response to this growing concern. The International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2021, warned that no new fossil-fuel projects should be developed if humanity hopes to reach zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
Azerbaijan is still heavily dependent on fossil-fuels for its export revenue and state income. These fuels account for 90% of the country’s export revenues. SOCAR, the state-owned oil company, has a long-term relationship with BP. Recently, they agreed to expand their joint-ventures to explore new oil fields.
SOCAR will allocate 97% of its 2023 capital expenditures towards oil and gas projects. SOCAR’s renewable energies operations are negligible, despite the fact that it launched a “green division” after Azerbaijan was named as COP29’s host. The company promised to invest in renewable energy technologies such as wind, sun, and carbon-capture technologies.
Join the protest on Pushkin Square at 7 pm to take a stance against climate inaction.
Climate Change: The Urgent Case to Reduce Animal Agriculture
Over the past 27-years, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCC) has largely ignored animal agriculture as one of the largest contributors to climate changes. The conversation has shifted slightly since the COP28 in Dubai last year. However, it is still not enough.
Food systems are responsible a third of the global greenhouse gas emission. Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels, the emissions from food systems could push global temperatures over the 1.5degC limit established by the Paris Agreement. The science is clear. The animal agriculture industry is one of the major drivers of climate change. Yet, it continues to downplay the impact of its activities or even present itself falsely as part of the solutions.
A recent comment made at a Plant Based Treaty Georgia Workshop captured the dilemma: “We won’t reach the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global heating to 1.5degC without prioritizing tree planting, and eradicating animal agriculture must be the final step.” Animal agriculture is the single largest source of methane, a greenhouse-gas roughly 80 times stronger than CO2, but it remains in the air for only 12 years.
Farm animals are responsible for 36% of anthropogenic methane, making them the largest contributors to this harmful gas. Reducing methane is our best, and perhaps our only, chance to limit global temperature rises to 1.5degC. We could free up 75% agricultural land by ending animal farming. This would allow us to plant trees and rewild the land. It will take years for these changes to mature, but they offer long-term benefits.
Some animal farmers claim that the land cannot be repurposed to grow crops for humans, but this is usually a case-specific argument. Even if this were true, the land could be rewilded instead of used for animal agriculture. It is time to change our mindset and stop commodifying the environment. Instead, we should focus on restoring ecosystems. Prioritizing native species when planting trees is important to support local biodiversity. A diverse range of plant foods should also be grown to maintain healthy food systems and soils.
By Katie Ruth Davies
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