Papua New Guinea to boycott UN climate summit, calls it a ‘waste of time’

Despite being one of the world’s most vulnerable nations to global warming’s effects, Papua New Guinea has announced it will boycott the upcoming United Nations COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan. Officials from the Pacific island nation, where average temperatures have risen by about 1.5 degrees over the past century, called the event a “total waste of time.”

“We are sick of the rhetoric as well as the merry-go-round of getting absolutely nothing done over the last three years,” Papua New Guinea’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said. “We are the third-biggest rainforest nation in the world. We are sucking up the pollutants of these major countries. And they are getting away with it scot-free.”

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Tkatchenko specifically called out the world’s biggest carbon emitters, like China, India and the United States, which collectively produce nearly half of the world’s greenhouse gases, and highlighted what he sees as empty promises from these nations at previous U.N. talks.

“All the big polluters of the world promise and commit millions to assist in climate relief and support. And I can tell you now it’s all going to consultants,” Tkatchenko said. “Why are we spending all this money going to the other side of the world going to these talkfests?”

Papua New Guinea has opted to instead seek climate partnerships through bilateral channels rather than attending COP29. Their decision to boycott the U.N.’s climate conference has reportedly garnered support from other countries in the Pacific bloc.