COP29 Should Not Be Politicized

As the international community prepares for COP29, the focus should be how the world plans to address the global climate change crisis and there should be no distractions from this important goal.   

As we speak, nearly three billion people face water scarcity across the planet. In the Middle East, this water scarcity is acutely felt, as there was a grave heat wave this past summer, which led to a great drought and massive desertification.  When there is not enough rainfall, this adversely affects the production of crops, thus transforming entire green areas into barren wastelands.  

Take Yemen as an example. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy reported, “Estimates suggest that the rate of desertification and deforestation in Yemen increased from 90% in 2014 to 97% in 2022.”  They added: “Severe drought this year has stressed crop yields and reduced agricultural productivity, forcing many farmers to suspend their work.”  This has slashed food production and driven up food prices, which exasperated already existing food insecurity caused by the civil war.  

Yemen is not the only area in the Middle East suffering from climate change.  From Lebanon to Iraq to Syria, the peoples of the region are facing a grave humanitarian crisis, which has been exacerbated by climate change.  The disastrous war between Israel and the proxies of Iran has only made this process of desertification worse in the Middle East region, as Hamas and Hezbollah rockets have destroyed much greenery and farmland.   

Between January and June 2024, Hezbollah destroyed over 12,800 acres of natural areas in the Golan Heights and Upper Galilee alone.  According to the Israeli Agriculture Ministry, 5,435 acres of orchards, vines and avocado plantations within 1.25 miles of the Lebanese border are not being farmed consistently and 370 acres of fruits and vines have been damaged by rocket related fires.   In Southern Israel along the Gaza border, crops such as potatoes, wheat, peanuts and tomatoes have sustained damage due to rockets, fires and the inability of farmers to work in their fields.  

The situation is not better on the other side of the fence.  Almost 80 percent of the farmers in Southern Lebanon are unable to harvest their olive trees for the year 2023/4, leading to massive poverty.  And for the average Gazan, clean water and healthy food items like tomatoes have become luxury items, out of reach for the common person, due to the massive destruction in the coastal strip.  Climate change only worsens this situation.  It does not make it better.        

At the same time, while the Middle East and North Africa are suffering from water and food scarcity, historic landmarks like the city of Venice and certain Pacific islands such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Fiji are expected to suffer from a rise in the sea level, which will cause flooding and eventually for a significant part of these areas to be submerged underwater as climate change intensifies.   As the world faces such grave threats, the international community must focus on these issues at COP29.  It cannot afford to get sidetracked and to discuss other issues.

For this reason, I condemn the 60 members of the US Congress, led by Congressman Frank Pallone, founder and co-chair of the Armenian Caucus in the US Congress, and Senator Ed Markey, both of whom are backed by the Armenian lobbying organization ANCA, who asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to use the COP29 Conference to condemn Azerbaijan.  These congressmen and senators are calling on the US Secretary of State to condemn one of America’s strongest allies in the South Caucasus, who sent troops to Afghanistan to help the United States after the September 11 terror attacks.  These members of the US Congress are attacking a country that has always had America’s back in order to get support from a domestic lobbying group and this is wrong.  

The fact that Azerbaijan had a conflict with Armenia in the past should not affect the present.   What matters is that there is now a peace process to resolve the conflict between both nations, and Azerbaijan seeks to build a green future, so that its people can prosper while living in peace with its neighbors.   Attacking Azerbaijan at this time does not advance this peace process and goes contrary to US interests in the region as well, as it diminishes strategic cooperation between Azerbaijan and the US on issues of critical importance, such as Iran and climate change.   

But what is more important is that they are politicizing an important conference that should be exclusively focused on how the international community plans to address climate change, and nothing else.   The fact that Azerbaijan is hosting the conference is irrelevant.   What is important right now is that the community of nations put together an action plan to tackle climate change for the benefit of humanity and major polluters like India and China get on board with it!    Otherwise, all of humanity will suffer.   For this reason, I call upon these 60 members of the US Congress to not use COP29 to condemn Azerbaijan, as it politicizes one of the greatest issues of our times.   There should be no distractions from dealing with climate change at COP29.  Our future depends upon it.