FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11/14/24
MEDIA CONTACT:
Edder Díaz Martínez, Communications Manager, GreenLatinos, edderdiazmartinez@greenlatinos.org
WASHINGTON — On Monday, November 11th, COP29 kicked off in Baku, Azerbaijan. This is the second COP in a row that is being held in a petrostate, a country whose economy heavily depends on the extraction and export of oil or natural gas. Azerbaijan’s economy is overwhelmingly driven by oil, with its state-owned SOCAR responsible for nearly 90% of the country’s exports and planning further fossil fuel expansion. This commitment to increased oil production starkly contradicts the goals of the Paris Agreement and disregards the climate crisis. While GreenLatinos stands firmly against Azerbaijan’s environmental disregard, we also condemn its recent actions in Nagorno-Karabakh, which have led to accusations of ethnic cleansing, humanitarian blockades, and war crimes. We condemn the human rights abuses reported in Azerbaijan and do not stand for the stifling of voices that expose the truth.
Following the commencement of this event, GreenLatinos Founding President & CEO, Mark Magaña, releases the following statement:
“In response to oil-rich nations’ continued purposeful dilution of COP objectives to perpetuate the world’s fossil-fuel consumption, GreenLatinos has decided to abstain from attending COP29 this year as we did last year.
What was once a global space for environmental activists, world governments, sustainability leaders, and key decision-makers to unite and push for greater ambition to address the world’s existential climate crisis has become hijacked by oil-rich nations whose role in hosting the annual summit has turned into a public relations exercise to greenwash their role in continuing to accelerate our world toward a global climate catastrophe. Despite yet another year of record-breaking heatwaves, floods, wildfires, and other extreme weather events, oil-wealthy countries are on course to derail COP29’s original intentions.
We continue to see new reports telling us what we already know: if we do not act now, irreversible damage will dramatically impact the people on this planet, with those marginalized communities being the first to be affected. We must remain defiant and seek justice for communities directly affected by these cataclysmic events. Attending COP29 is antithetical to that mission.
Hosting these annual summits in nations whose economy revolves around fossil fuels, is a slap in the face to fenceline communities who are experiencing the worst effects of the climate crisis. We stand united with local communities who are fighting back, and we will resist the attempt to impede true substantive progress toward climate justice.”
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About GreenLatinos
GreenLatinos (NOTE: GreenLatinos is ONE WORD) is an active comunidad of Latino/a/e leaders, emboldened by the power and wisdom of our culture, united to demand equity and dismantle racism, resourced to win our environmental, conservation, and climate justice battles, and driven to secure our political, economic, cultural, and environmental liberation.