- “I’ve decided to boycott COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan — a decision shaped by both the failure of the COP process to deliver tangible support for the most vulnerable communities, and the deeply troubling global events unfolding around us,” writes the author of a new op-ed who’s been to all the recent COPs.
- COPs seem unable to address the needs of small island states and Indigenous communities like her own. Instead of delivering on the promises made at previous summits, the conference has continually sidelined Indigenous voices and funneled financial support for them through national governments.
- “While I will not be at COP29, I believe that by supporting communities like these, we can lay the groundwork for systemic shifts needed to address the climate crisis. The boycott is temporary, but the work continues,” she states.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
The first United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that I worked on was in 2009. I didn’t actually go but rather volunteered for Farhana Yamin representing the Marshall Islands, doing some research. She invited me to come and her delegation would pay half of my ticket and accommodation. She said she would give me a letter to my government to be a delegate and ask them to fund the other half, or get funding for me to come. I couldn’t, because I had law exams to do toward qualifying for the London Bar at Inns of Court School of Law, now City Law School.
My actual first COP was in 2011 with the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD), founded by the eminent international law barrister Philippe Sands, who had advised Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) with our very own legend, Angela Cropper, back in the 1980s.
I’ve been involved with each and every COP since then, from working behind the scenes as a junior barrister in London in various think tanks, where I wrote briefing papers and advised on ad hoc requests – in what we affectionately called the “war room” – to going with delegations to field ad hoc queries from Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries as a legal adviser and liaison, and heading my own Institute for Small Islands while going with my country delegation. It has been an exhilarating and intense ride. I loved the mental challenge of the UNFCCC process. I still do.
But I worry that on the edge of catastrophic global upheaval, the beast that is the UNFCCC is not enough. It is not moving quickly enough.
This year, I’ve decided to boycott COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan — a decision shaped by both the failure of the COP process to deliver tangible support for the most vulnerable communities, and the deeply troubling global events unfolding around us.
COPs have long been criticized for their inability to address the needs of small island states and Indigenous peoples — groups disproportionately impacted by climate change. Instead of delivering on the promises made at previous summits, the conference has continually sidelined these voices and funneled financial support through national governments. Many of these governments have strained— and sometimes adversarial, hostile and even dangerous — relationships with local Indigenous communities. In many ways, the COP process has become a cycle of talk with little real action.
Papua New Guinea, one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, recently voiced its frustration with COPs. In August, Prime Minister James Marape announced that his country would not attend COP29 in protest of the big nations’ failure to provide “quick support to victims of climate change.” Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tckatchenko described COP29 as “a total waste of time,” echoing the disappointment felt by many in the Pacific. Papua New Guinea, which is home to one of the world’s largest rainforests and which faces threats from rising sea levels, has long been sidelined by the global climate process, despite its vulnerability.
I stand in solidarity with them. For me, this decision to stay away from the COP is not only about frustration with the global process, but also about frustration with other global processes to constrain the ongoing violence, the humanitarian and human rights catastrophes and military excesses and genocides that are happening in Palestine, Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon and other places to conquer the Middle East. This is about the destruction of primordial rainforests in the Amazon and the Congo in a stark land grab to pillage the minerals and oil beneath. Forget the remnants of the Indigenous peoples on their lands who are the last few communities who actually know how to live in peace with the earth, who are now being thrown into a fight to the death for funding to do performative displays and further extractive pillaging of a knowledge once denigrated and discarded publicly, yet mined privately by big pharma.
And that’s just the cultural genocide. The physical genocide of Indigenous peoples guarding the last untouched pieces of earth, and the lost stories of earth, is just as appalling — the loss of entire peoples, entire nations, that survived millennia, survived the bumbling genocidal idiots, only to disappear at our own hands.
It is difficult, in all good conscience, to engage with a global political process that continues to overlook the urgent needs of the world’s most vulnerable communities. This is especially heightened by the fact that children, mothers, and the elderly are being slaughtered elsewhere — and the world remains largely indifferent. It is hard to participate in an event that disregards such deep suffering all over the world.
This year, I’m focusing instead on grassroots efforts. I have spent almost the last decade at home on my island – going to no international conferences for the entire last year on purpose – working on building my communities, my Warao and Kalinago and Merikin Maroon communities, to encourage resilience and to be able to amplify their voices at local, regional and international levels.
My commitment to climate action and local resilience has not wavered. While COP29 represents yet another missed opportunity for real change, my focus is now shifting to more localized, community-driven efforts.
Over the past months, I’ve been deeply involved through my think tank, the Institute for Small Islands, as well as through my own personal capacity as a Kalinago and Warao descendant, in highly successful Indigenous gatherings in Trinidad and Tobago, like the inaugural Warao Indigenous Festival, hosted by the Warao Community of San Fernando and Siparia, and also the second annual “Maroon Gathering” conference hosted by the United Maroon Indigenous Peoples. These festivals were built from the ground up by communities of amazing and brilliant people, led by their respective and eminent leaders, Warao Shaman Raould Simon and Merikin Paramount Chief lya Akilah Jaramogi.
See related: What Indigenous leaders want from COP29
The Institute for Small Islands was proud to support both communities, and Adam Mar Andrews, Adam Thomas, Jeanette Charles and I were honored to work on and play a tiny role in the creation of these festivals. Both gatherings brought together Indigenous peoples – including leaders, shamans, women, elders and youth – true representation from each community across the entire region from Belize to Suriname to the islands in between, in sharing knowledge, strengthening solidarity, and advancing action for the future. These events have proven that real, sustainable change can emerge from the ground up when we empower local communities.
One of the most powerful moments for me was witnessing a historic gathering of Indigenous delegations from the Orinoco Delta, Suriname, and Trinidad, including the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community – quite possibly the first time these specific groups have convened together to talk about unity – at the Warao Indigenous Festival, hosted by the The Warao Community of San Fernando and Siparia. I am proud to have been part of this diplomatic process which highlighted the solidarity and strength of these communities.
Just as powerful are moments like the inauguration of the Warao Cacica, from fourth generation Cacica mother Donna Bermudez Bovell to daughter Ortancia Benjamin at the grave of our ancestor the Banwarie Man, and an important scene from a workshop on Sustainable Livelihoods and Climate Justice at the Second Annual Maroon Gathering, where the youth held center stage and an Indigenous father held his daughter, as another LGBTQIA youth leader led the workshop.
These gatherings show the power of local action. By amplifying Indigenous voices – whose knowledge and wisdom have long been marginalized – we can create the sustainable changes needed to tackle the climate crisis. This is where my energy is focused right now. Working locally with communities, strengthening connections, and advocating for Indigenous representation in governance and decision-making is where the real work lies.
This is the kind of action that can bring about lasting change. While I will not be at COP29, I believe that by supporting communities like these, we can lay the groundwork for systemic shifts needed to address the climate crisis. The boycott is temporary, but the work continues.
COP29 marks the fourth time the conference is being held in an OPEC country, and next year it will be hosted by Brazil, the newest member of OPEC. But don’t worry – I’ll be back next year, raising my voice alongside Indigenous communities, local activists, and change makers who are already doing the work on the ground. Together, we will keep pushing for the changes that the COP process continues failing to deliver.
Caroline Mair-Toby is the founding director of the Institute for Small Islands.
Related audio from Mongabay’s podcast: How Indigenous knowledge is key to conservation and climate action, listen here:
See related coverage:
What Indigenous leaders want from the COP29 U.N. climate conference
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