COP29: Historical polluters evade their responsibilities at the cost of developing countries and lives of environmental human rights defenders

Statement of the Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders on the UNFCCC COP29
November 25, 2025

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties 29, commonly called the Climate Conference (COP29), concluded yesterday in Baku, Azerbaijan. Environmental human rights defenders, along with civil society organizations, were enraged by the outcome documents, especially those from developing countries in the Global South.

COP29 was dubbed the Climate Finance COP because climate finance was one of the main agenda items for discussion. However, world leaders failed to meet expectations, with the climate finance goal only pegged at $300 billion. This is a far cry from the $1.3 trillion per year demanded by developing countries, based on the estimated cost of losses and damages. Governments’ commitments to climate finance are far less than the amounts they have spent on imperialist wars and militarism, such as the ongoing attacks in Palestine.

In addition, carbon markets, or market-based solutions, are still encouraged despite developing countries’ calls for grants instead of loans and other profit-making schemes. These mechanisms will not only amass more wealth for historical polluters but also allow them to evade their responsibilities for the climate crisis. To make matters worse, loss and damage were excluded from the climate finance goal.

Human rights language was also largely absent from the text. There are no clear human rights safeguards in the climate finance goal, which threatens to worsen the harms to already affected communities and local ecosystems. The suggested text on the protection of women environmental human rights defenders was not included in the Lima Work Programme on Gender. It would have been the only part of all the documents to mention the term “environmental human rights defenders.”

Civil society and defenders who attended COP29 in Baku also reported a further shrinking space for participation and advocacy actions. First, the mere cost of attending COP29 was a deterrent for many defenders who wanted to join, on top of the difficulty of obtaining accreditation. Second, there was a lack of opportunity to observe actual negotiations. Only a very few observers were allowed in the meeting rooms, and even fewer could make interventions. If there had been genuine intent to engage civil society with the Parties, there should have been space for them to join. Additionally, protests (called actions) were allowed only limited time, spaces, and participants. Participants were not allowed to mention their country, corporations, or government officials in their speeches. Even the noise level of the protest was controlled. Anyone who broke these rules was threatened with losing their badges or accreditation, thereby losing their access to the climate conference along with their organization’s access. For the third year in a row, the People’s Summit was canceled, and no outside actions were permitted. Participants also reported suspicious individuals filming or photographing them during actions.

Even before COP29 began, reports of arrests of activists in Azerbaijan had already emerged. This included the arrest of Gubad Ibadoglu, a professor at the London School of Economics, who researches the oil and gas sector and other environmental issues in Azerbaijan. He was arrested on charges of fraud in 2023. Anar Mammadli was arrested in April after he co-founded an organization that called on the Azerbaijani government to align with the Paris Agreement. He was charged with smuggling. It is very disturbing that past COPs have been held in countries with limited civic space and increasing numbers of prisoners of conscience.

The Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders denounces the results of the climate conference for both its outcomes, which fall short of the needs of developing countries most affected by the climate crisis, and its processes, which have limited space for civil society engagement. Environmental human rights defenders, along with civil society from developing countries, deserve a seat at the table to ensure that world leaders deliver justice to the historical polluters responsible for the climate crisis. It is high time that the climate conference becomes a space for the people and not for fossil fuel lobbyists and corporations that peddle false solutions.

While world leaders have failed the people, especially the most climate-vulnerable, we call on fellow environmental human rights defenders to hold the line and stand in unity to defend our rights and the environment. Meaningful change will never come from the halls of the climate conference but through our collective action in our communities and by strengthening our movements.