Every year, we rehearse the same empty celebration of Conference of Parties (COP). Member state of United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) gathered every year to “keep the earth’s temperature rise below 1.5oC” through global climate commitments. The real question is, has this grand annual agenda led to any real change?
The bitter truth is, this money-draining event has brought little to no significant impact especially to those who bear the direct burden of climate change. For instance, during COP29 at Baku, Azerbaijan, a 300 billion US Dollar climate finance pledge was announced under the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). it sounds promising, but it’s not. This commitment actually fails to address the real challenges faced by developed countries. Not only that, but it also risks trapping developing countries in even greater debt.
And once again, the world gathers to talk about change that never comes. Just like every year, this time COP30 is being held in Belem, Brazil. An elite agenda that carries a deep irony. Let’s start with the host itself, Brazil has deforest the protected amazon rainforest to build a four-lane highway for the summit. Even more ironically, the government of Brazil has granted permits for oil drilling projects, directly contradicting the very goals of COP itself.
Let’s not forget about how this high-level delegates, the “global leaders”, prepare their speech while flying in a private jet, emitting more carbon than grassroots communities do in an entire month. Moreover, COP’s sponsors aren’t changemakers, but the very extractive companies. How can transformation take place when power is still held by those who caused the problem?
The same irony unfolds at our own home, Indonesia. As displayed on indonesiaunfccc.com, this year’s Indonesia COP30 sponsors are none other than the extractive corporations exploiting their own people’s land, displacing local communities and emitting carbon that directly harms the very people least responsible for them. Among them are PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP), PT Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP), Harita Nickel, and Adaro.
Perhaps the greatest irony is, instead of truly driving change through energy transition, the phase-out of extractive industries, and true commitment in leaving coal, COP has once again ended up enabling these industries, becoming a justification for them to continue running. Carbon trading is framed as the main solution, a convenient escape route that shifts focus away from real action. While it may help protect forests, the true solution lies in stopping emissions at their source.
The bad news doesn’t end there, as Indonesian, we continue to face disappointment. As an inseparable part of COP, the Second National Determined Contribution (SNDC) is supposed to serve as a key driver to Indonesia’s climate action. Instead, SNDC functions only as a formality, a document of promises but not a true commitment to end the crisis. Despite being submitted late this year, SNDC remains deeply underwhelming and disappointing.
Indonesia’s SNDC focuses heavily on achieving 8% economic growth, leaving its climate commitments far less ambitious than they should be. The projection still shows rising emissions, a heavy reliance on a single sector; Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU), and targets that continue to enable the use of coal and gas, which contrast to the country’s goal of achieving 100% renewable energy by 2060 or sooner.
So, who is COP really for? The claim made by Hashim Djojohadikusumo in his COP30 speech, that Indonesia is decisively phasing down coal and is committed to ensuring just and inclusive climate action and energy transition, is nothing more than another empty promise. The SNDC continues to serve as a tool that sustains business interests benefiting only the elites, sidelining the real problems faced by communities. COP, too, remains an elite, performative forum that does little to address the worsening climate injustice year after year. What we truly need is real action, not empty promises.
