Cop29 live: UK, New Zealand and Colombia join coalition to phase out fossil fuel subsidies

At Cop29 today, I ran into Katie Rood, the New Zealand footballer, writes Dharna Noor, US fossil fuels and climate reporter. Rood came to the summit to speak on a panel about the role of athletes in the climate fight.

Last month, Rood led an open letter demanding FIFA drop the oil giant Saudi Aramco as a sponsor on humanitarian and environmental grounds. The partnership is “a middle finger to women’s soccer,” the letter said.

“The sponsorship doesn’t align with the values of the sport and Fifa’s own values,” she said.

Rood was thrilled with the letter’s reception. It was signed by 130 athletes and received international media coverage. Fifa’s response, however, was underwhelming.

“Fifa just kind of came back with a blank statement about how much they value their sponsorship and that they’re investing in women’s football,” she said. “So we haven’t heard directly from them about it.”

Over 1,700 coal, oil and gas lobbyists granted access to Cop29, the Guardian revealed last week.

“It’s disturbing to see just how much influence the lobbies have here,” Rood said. “Are we actually able to have influence and make positive steps toward a brighter future?”

Right now, there is a “tug of war going on between different entities,” Rood said.

“But I think we just have to keep putting our best foot forward,” she said.

A US congressman has accused Azerbaijan’s government of organising an attempted assault on him while he visited Baku.

On his return to Washington on Monday, representative Frank Pallone, who is an outspoken supporter of Azerbaijan’s rival Armenia, told reporters that he was only saved by the diplomatic security he was travelling with.

“It was no question that if it wasn’t for the fact that security that the embassy hired protected me, I would have been in the hospital,” he was quoted as saying by AFP.

The Democrat from New Jersey said he was confronted by hostile and seemingly coordinated questions by local media while visiting Cop29.

Around 50 “thugs” then waited for him outside his hotel, with the local police refusing to take him through a back entrance but the US embassy-provided security shielding him, he said.

“It was clear that they wanted to assault me,” he said, adding: “You know this was orchestrated by the government. That’s what this was all about. In order to make a point that we don’t want you here and we don’t want you articulating concerns that you have.”

Democrat senator Ed Markey said he also encountered harassment while in Baku, and that he needed a bodyguard even inside his hotel.

Markey, who is a leading climate advocate, accused energy producer Azerbaijan of intensifying repression and “greenwashing” both its climate and human rights record by holding Cop29.

“We can’t just allow these authoritarian petrostates to ignore both the human rights and the climate threats that have to be addressed in a comprehensive way,” Markey said.

On food, agriculture and water day at Cop29, US officials trumpeted the Biden administration’s conservation wins, writes Dharna Noor, US fossil fuels and climate reporter, in Baku.

Shortly after taking office, Biden set a goal to conserve at least 30% of US lands and waters by 2030.

“I’m proud to say that we have conserved more than 45 million acres so far,” said Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House council on environmental quality, in a Tuesday press conference.

The US secretary of agriculture, Thomas Vilsack, also spoke, touting the the intergovernmental Agriculture Innovation Mission (AIM) for Climate initiative, led by the US and UAE.

At Cop29, the initiative announced $29.2bn in funding for resilient agriculture and food systems globally.

Asked how the Biden administration’s efforts on environmental justice can be preserved under Donald Trump, Mallory noted that many dollars have “already gone out to communities” for everything from closing off leaky oil and gas wells to swapping gas-fuelled school buses with electric ones.

Under Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency also took several steps to improve water quality and rein in toxic chemical pollution, including by implementing water limits for toxic forever chemicals and lead, she noted.

“Some of those will surely continue,” she said.

But Trump is expected to re-evaluate many of these rules and regulations.

When the Guardian asked Vilsack how the administration can preserve its legacy on conservation, he said funding has already been spent to do so, with contracts signed and partnerships formed.

“So I’m confident that this is going to continue, just because I think the people who are receiving the benefits understand it’s their responsibility to preserve it,” he said. “Theres a groundswell of momentum that I don’t think any administration…would be in a position to stop”

Damian Carrington

Yesterday delegates in Baku heard from youth representatives, who spoke about the ways in which they were being affected by climate breakdown. Here’s one we didn’t have a chance to run earlier.

“As a surfer, I’m constantly on the ocean, and I actually felt the oceans warming,” says Catarina Lorenzo, 17, a professional surfer from Salvador, in Bahia state in Brazil.

Lorenzo is one of the Unicef climate youth advocates at Cop29, representing the future of humanity, writes Damian Carrington, Guardian environment editor. She said:

My family has always taught me the importance of taking care of nature, and they always say that taking care of nature is taking care of ourselves.

When I look at Brazil this year, we see that the climate consequences are getting worse and worse. We saw floods in the South, droughts in the Amazon, burning of the Pantanal, the destruction of the Cerrado, which became the most destroyed biome of Brazil.

We have droughts in the rainy seasons, and this affects the small family farms and because of this, the big agricultural and livestock industry buys the land from the small agricultural community and then contribute more to the climate crisis.

How can children access their rights to a safe, healthy and clean environment if they don’t have the natural spaces to access. When my government throws sewage in the river, it goes to the ocean, and I can’t surf because I’m going to get sick.

As a surfer, I’m constantly on the ocean, and when I was nine years old, I actually felt the oceans warming. The water was much hotter than normal, and when I got close to a coral reef, it was full of white spots. That is coral bleaching, something that had never happened.

Children have things to say [but] we need the space to say it. We need a Cop for children. When I get into the position of power where the older generation is now, I won’t have the same power to make effective actions. The actions have to be made now. If we are the future, then this future needs to have a voice.