Press Conference at COP29: COP of Peace - Demilitarize for Climate Justice

Press Conference on Peace, Demilitarization, and Climate Justice at COP29

Baku, Azerbaijan — November 16, 2024  17:30 - 18:00. Rm 2, Area C
 

COP29, hosted this year in Azerbaijan, has been hailed as the "COP of Peace," with the host nation urging countries to "transcend political challenges" and observe a truce throughout the conference. But can a “COP of peace” be achieved without addressing militarism’s impact on the climate?  The Peace and Demilitarization Working Group will host a press conference on this crucial question and to call for the inclusion of militarism in climate negotiations.

Military Spending - Military spending has reached a record high of $2.44 trillion, while pledges for climate finance fall short. With COP29 set to negotiate the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, this conference will press for the reallocation of public spending on militarism towards climate justice..

Military Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Researchers estimate that global militaries contribute roughly 5.5% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, positioning them as the hypothetical “fourth largest emitter” if considered as a nation—surpassing even Russia’s carbon footprint. Despite this, military emissions remain outside the scope of current climate agreements, which means no accountability is demanded of military sectors. 

Fossil fuels are Fuelling War - Militaries are one of the largest consumers of fossil fuels and the struggle over energy resources has been a conspicuous factor in many recent conflicts, while fossil fuel extraction is highly militarized. The fossil fuel industry is itself fueling war, armed conflict and genocide, especially inPalestine. Palestinians are therefore calling for an energy embargo to end this support of war-waging by fossil fuel industries (and exporting nations).

Militarism and war are especially impacting women, indigenous communities and people and areas most affected by the climate crisis. Even today, especially indigenous people are suffering the effects of nuclear weapons testing that was carried out on their lands. Adaptation to the climate emergency is obstructed during violent conflicts but also for decades after the cessation of violence due to environmental degradation.

The session will include perspectives from experts and those impacted on the frontlines of both armed conflicts and the climate crisis, demonstrating the inherent connections between militarism and the climate crisis.At a time when the world is witnessing its highest number of violent conflicts since World War II, accountability for militaries’ environmental impact and the prioritization of peace are essential for achieving climate justice.

Event Details
Date: November 16, 2024
Time: 17:30 - 18:00
Location: Press Conference 2, Area C, COP29 venue, Baku, Azerbaijan

Speakers:

• Tasneem Elfatih, Researcher and Climate activist from Sudan 

• Hamza Hamouchene, Researcher and activist with Global Energy Embargo for Palestine (GEEP)

• Ellie Kinney, Advocacy Coordinator for Climate, Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS)

• Deborah Burton, Co-founder and Director, Tipping Point North South

• Yoshioka Tatsuya, Chair, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC)

• Karina Lester, ICAN Ambassador Australia and First Nations Representative 

For Information and Interviews, Contact:
Karen Hallows, International Coordinator at Peace Boat/ Peace and Demilitarization Working Group Co-lead.
Email: karen@peaceboat.gr.jp
Whatsapp/Signal: +44 7804 761389

Laura Wunder, climate justice and global health officer at International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War IPPNW Germany 

Email: wunder@ippnw.de

WhatsApp/signal: +49 151 592 566 51

Notes for Editors
The Peace and Demilitarization Working Group is a cross-constituency working group hosted by the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), one of the nine stakeholder groups of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The group advocates for climate action policies that account for militarism’s environmental impact and champion peace and demilitarization as central to achieving climate justice.

Speaker Profiles

Tasneem Elfatih is a young climate activist and youth negotiator from Sudan. She is an environmental advocate, researcher on the environmental impacts of the Sudan war, and junior Loss and Damage negotiator with the Least Developed Countries Group at the UNFCCC. She has a background in engineering and development studies, focusing on climate change impacts and advocating for sustainable solutions in international discussions. Tasneem is dedicated to addressing the intersection of climate change, conflict, and sustainable development.

Hamza Hamouchene is a researcher-activist, commentator and organiser with the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine, a Palestinian-led campaign demanding an end to the coal and oil transfers that fuel Israel’s genocide in Gaza. He is also a founding member of Algeria Solidarity Campaign (ASC), Environmental Justice North Africa (EJNA) and Siyada Network for food sovereignty in the Arab region, and the North Africa Programme Coordinator at the Transnational Institute (TNI). His work focuses on issues of extractivism, resources, land and food sovereignty as well as climate, environmental, and trade justice, and has authored/edited four books on these topics.

Ellie Kinney is Advocacy Coordinator for climate at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, leading on the Military Emissions Gap project. The project advocates for greater accountability for the military’s contribution to the climate crisis through transparent reporting to the UNFCCC. She is based in Manchester in the north of England and has a background in grassroots campaigning for peace and disarmament in the UK and internationally.

​​Deborah Burton has wide ranging experience across economic justice campaigns such as trade and tax justice; also children's human rights and women’s health and environment. She leads on Tipping Point North South's primary policy/advocacy project: Transform Defence - military emissions and spending; climate change and climate finance; UN processes and wider foreign and defence policy thinking.  Previously, her work at Tipping Point North South included executive producing on cinema documentaries including We Are Many which explored the global anti-Iraq protest movement and Open Bethlehem - a film about the impact of the Israeli separation wall on the town and citizens of Bethlehem.

Yoshioka Tatsuya, Chair of the Board of GPPAC, Peace Boat Founder. Yoshioka Tatsuya, founding member and Chair of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), has been instrumental in global civil society efforts to prevent conflict and promote peace. He founded Peace Boat in 1983 to foster reconciliation and study Japan's war responsibility, organizing global educational voyages. Over three decades, Yoshioka has led initiatives in Japanese civil society and internationally, including peace dialogues between Israeli and Palestinian youth, Eritrean-Ethiopian reconciliation, and Northeast Asian dialogues. He has authored books on conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia, the Japan-Russia Northern Territories dispute, and Japan’s pacifist constitution. In 2009, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for leading the Global Article 9 Campaign to Abolish War. Peace Boat is a Steering Group member of ICAN, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Karina Lester, ICAN Ambassador Australia and First Nations Representative  Karina Lester is a Yankunytjatjara Anangu woman from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY Lands) in the far North West of South Australia. Karina is an outspoken anti-nuclear activist and an ICAN Ambassador, sharing not only her late father’s (Yami Lester) story but her grandmother’s story of the British Nuclear Tests in the 1950s-60s. She has travelled internationally to speak out and participated in the negotiations for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017, hand-delivering the Indigenous Statement to the negotiating conference on behalf of 35 organisations.