A Greenpeace environmental activist installs a round placard reading "Make the world great again" with landmark TV tower in the background in front of Germany's Foreign Ministry where the Petersberg Climate Dialogue conference is held, on March 26, 2025. Photo: RALF HIRSCHBERGER
A Pacific climate change advisor, who has attended multiple iterations of the United Nations climate summit, the Conference of Parties (COP), says it is not perfect, but it is the only process the world currently has.
Each year, heads of state and climate activists travel from around the world to discuss international climate change policy.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) supports Pacific countries in their COP strategies and presentations.
RNZ Pacific asked its director of climate change Tagaloa Cooper whether, in physically meeting with the goal of saving the planet, more harm is actually being done in the process.
She said it is a question they get a lot.
"For a long time now, people have been saying that it is a waste of time, why does the Pacific keep going to the COP, has anything changed, etcetera," she said.
"The concerns are, in my view, valid.
"We all know, those of us who are involved in the process, that the COP process is an imperfect one - but it is the process we have.
"Our people are not going to give up, because giving up...is not an option for the Pacific. Bowing out is not an option for the Pacific."
More than 55,000 people descended on Baku Stadium in Azerbaijan in November 2024 for COP, the annual UN climate conference.
Majority of those people flew. A flight from Auckland to Doha - a large nearby international hub - creates approximately 700kg of carbon dioxide per person, according to the UN's official calculation tool.
Using this same tool, a flight from Doha to Baku creates 161kg of C02 per passenger.
For COP30 in Belem, Brazil, this November, 33 infrastructure projects are being done. A highway to the city is also being cut through Amazon rainforest, with the BBC reporting many saying this deforestation contradicts the very purpose of a climate summit.
COP denies that road is for the conference.
"The Extraordinary Secretariat for COP30, linked to the Office of the Chief of Staff (Casa Civil) of the Presidency of Brasil, clarifies that the construction work for the Avenida Liberdade highway in Belém, Pará ...is not under the responsibility of the federal government nor is it part of the 33 infrastructure projects planned for COP30 (the United Nations Climate Change Conference) to be held in November of this year."
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Cooper said SPREP gets questions around emissions of travel going to a climate summit, "and you have got to weigh that up".
She said some delegations are lighter with travel emissions being a consideration.
"Whilst we do want to live in a world that we do not use fossil fuels and emissions are drastically cut, it is not a process that would be effective without human contact and people coming together to face each other. I do not think it outweighs the benefit, and it happens once a year.
COP29 logo is seen in Baku, Azerbaijan on 17 September 2024. Photo: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via AFP
"But there are greater emissions by other countries that we should be focusing on.
"Not to say that we [should not] find a better way to do this, but we have not found that better way."
Cooper said noting it is an imperfect process, it has nonetheless established funding for countries to respond to climate impacts, including the Green Climate Fund and the loss and damage fund.
Attendees are now in the tens of thousands. Cooper said if it was up to her, if it was smaller "you would feel like you would have more impact". But virtual meetings have been tried in the lead-up to a previous COP during Covid, and Cooper said there is merit in being physically in the same room.
"I did not feel like our countries had the opportunity to have the say [virtually] because everyone else was competing with their hand raised and there were limitations on how many people could speak. So I felt that our countries were marginalised even further.
"I think you could have some of the meetings, like the dedicated meetings for the different aspects, online but certainly not for the big decision-making items. Can you imagine having a virtual meeting for over 30,000 delegates?"
University College London created a tool for COP28 (in 2023), a spreadsheet to measure a person's climate impact in undertaking the trip.
The College said it was estimated that 60 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions from COP26 (in 2021) were attributed to international travel.
The 2022 study accompanying the calculator said users were invited to "consider all their options for travel and acknowledge the issue of climate justice through careful selection of carbon offsets".
The study said addressing the large carbon footprint of conferences such as COP "will be important for maintaining public confidence in climate policy".
"Transparency is also a vital aspect of creating equitable outcomes in climate policies, as those most likely to be affected or who can create change on the ground are often unable to attend in person because of the high financial costs as well as having a large carbon footprint."
The COP30 organisation did not respond to a query from RNZ Pacific on the total emissions produced by COP29.
But it said in a statement Brazil pledges to ensure this year's event's carbon neutrality.
"To achieve this target, key principles have been adopted: preventing emissions, prioritising their reduction at the source, replacing them with low-carbon alternatives, and offsetting residual emissions when unavoidable.
"The range of achievable measures is broad, from neutralization at the source to offsetting residual emissions."
On its website, COP30 Brasil said: "COP30 in Belém is committed to sustainable practices such as offsetting carbon emissions, using renewable energy in the event's facilities, and promoting a circular economy with a focus on recycling and reusing materials."
The UN Climate Change Conference breaks into cheers as the Paris Agreement is adopted. Photo: AFP
COP30 media said significant collective progress has been made since the Paris Agreement.
"Prior to the 2015 consensus, some projections pointed out to an expected global temperature increase over 4C.
"With the full implementation of the current NDCs [Nationally Determined Contributions], projections indicate an increase in the range of 2.1-2.8C."
Science modelling suggests that 2C of warming will result in changes to earth's system that could pose risks to human life, and ideally, the Agreement says, the world would keep things within 1.5C - although in 2024 global temperatures breached that for the first time.
All but three countries signed up to the Paris Agreement - but now the US is joining Yemen, Iran and Libya outside the circle.
While the agreement has helped to reduce emissions somewhat, the world is far off its goal of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celcius, according to the Climate Action Tracker.
Charan Jeet Singh, Fiji's sugar minister and a millionaire businessman, described delegates attending COP29 as a "financial burden to their respective countries".
He also claimed that 80 percent of climate funding to Pacific Islands goes to non-governmental organisations and governments for travel, consultancy, and wining and dining.
"Enough of this drama please. Let's all be serious to save our island nations and the livelihood of our citizens and the generations to come."
New Zealand's Climate Change Minister Simon Watts attended COP29 in Baku.
His office declined an interview saying it would be inappropriate to talk about other countries' domestic policy. It instead issued a statement on the merit of COP, saying the Paris Agreement and COP is the best prospect for achieving effective global climate action.
"It has near universal participation, built-in transparency and accountability, and all countries have a say. This is important for small countries."
He said progress has been made through the COP set-up - pointing to the same data COP30 used around the impact of the Paris Agreement.
He also pointed out the agreement on a new global fund for responding to loss and damage - "an issue that is of critical importance to the Pacific".
"Every increment of a degree matters to the impacts we and our neighbours will feel."
The Brazilian federal government is investing approximately BRL$4.7 billion (US$824.6 million) in preparation for COP30.
It said the investment translates into a series of projects to meet the increasing demand for transportation, accommodation, and adequate venues for the Summit, and the projects will be a legacy for locals.
"The macro-drainage projects, for example, will improve the quality of life in areas most in need of basic sanitation."
The main challenges expected this year include aligning the commitments of developed and developing countries in relation to climate finance and dealing with the socio-economic impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations.
COP30 will be held on November 10-21, 2025, in Belém, Pará, Brazil.
