Snapshots from the COP29 in Baku

A dead whale on the beach! Are there whales here in the Caspian Sea? No, it is an object created by a group of artists to show how vulnerable our world is. After all, it could be that a whale had been washed ashore. The whale object was produced by an organization called Captain Boomer. It brings together actors, sculptors and scientists. The aim is to raise awareness of our environment while countries from all over the world negotiate how the Paris climate target can still be met.

I took my first steps as an activist with Greenpeace. I traveled a lot on ships for campaigns, and whales were the symbol for everything Greenpeace stood and stands for. Seeing the object lying here, so true to reality, sends shivers down my spine.

UPDATE ON AWARD-WINNING PROJECTS

Other initiatives are also trying to draw attention to environmental evils, sometimes with cheerful campaigns. For example, there is the environmental group HOMEF from Nigeria, which is calling for no more oil to be extracted in the Niger Delta. This topic has been on my mind for a long time because one of the activists in Nigeria, Nimmo Bassey, was awarded the “Alternative Nobel Prize”. I have been involved with the Right Livelihood Foundation for decades and saw the catastrophic contamination on site during a visit to our prizewinner. This has a direct impact on the health of the population and the people there are losing their livelihoods.

In Baku, I also met two other award winners – the SEKEM project from Egypt, which is being continued by the son of founder Ibrahim Abouleish, Helmy Abouleish, and Hunter Lovins with her sharp analyses of her organization “Natural Capitalism Solutions”. Positive information is coming from Egypt: Things are going well with the organic food produced in SEKEM and by now 40,000 local farmers. This is important to show that we need to move from two percent organic farming worldwide to much larger quantities in order to do something for soil building, which protects the climate, as well as to ensure food security.

The Future Economy Forum serves as a platform for the organizations and farmers who are meeting here at the COP, and I am also here as a member of the board of PAN (Physicians Association for Nutrition).

REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE FOR CLIMATE PROTECTION

Farmers from different parts of the world have joined us, for example one from Swaziland, but also from the Caribbean. They all used to be able to make a living from subsistence farming, but industrial agriculture has now destroyed their soils so that they can’t make a living from it. The only way for agriculture to do something to protect the climate – at least 50 percent of CO2 is stored in the soil – is to support organic/regenerative agriculture and farmers. Incidentally, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) already made this clear in 2013.

I am also in Baku to represent the eFuel Alliance. Where the direct use of electrical energy is not possible, eFuels are a good alternative, provided they are produced from green hydrogen. There are also many at the COP who are addressing the issue of technical transition. Azerbaijan wants to continue supplying oil and gas, as this is what has driven the country forward. On the other hand, you can also see a lot of electric filling stations and electric buses here. The national energy company Socar, which is actually active in the oil and gas sector, is also starting to build solar and wind power plants. Azerbaijan has 250 days of sunshine and Baku is called the city of wind. This is the best prerequisite for supplying regenerative molecules in the form of eFuels or hydrogen or its derivatives instead of fossil fuels.

EFUELS MEETING WITH ENERGY COMPANY IN AZERBAIJAN

Socar has not yet dealt with eFuels. We raised this issue with the energy company and political representatives of Azerbaijan in a discussion that took place during Friedbert Pflüger’s energy talks in Baku. On that day, a cooperation agreement was signed between Socar and the German company Uniper, which is increasingly focusing on CO2-free energy supply. Azerbaijan currently supplies gas to Germany instead of Russia. The cooperation could be extended to renewable energies.

However, it is still questionable whether the COP’s actual goal of achieving more compensation payments for the climate-damaged countries of the South will be achieved. Nevertheless, the exchange between governments, business, science and civil society is particularly important in these times.