LiU researcher ahead of UN climate summit: "I’m optimistic"

There are several reasons why environmental organisations are critical of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP29, being held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, from 11 to 22 November.More than 40% of Azerbaijan’s GDP comes from oil. Another reason is that the COP29 President-Designate is Azerbaijan’s environment minister, Mukhtar Babayev, who previously worked for the state oil company SOCAR. This company is also one of the climate summit’s official sponsors.

The summit from a different point of view

But Rinata Kazak from Tema M - Environmental Change thinks that there are also reasons for optimism. For example, she believes that the meeting could raise awareness of climate change among the people of Azerbaijan.

“Perhaps it can help change the current narrative about Azerbaijani oil,” she says.

She also points out that Environment Minister Babayev has stated that he sees the meeting in Baku as a crucial opportunity to restore confidence between the Global North and South. Moreover, the oil company SOCAR has promised to present a new green strategy to start extracting geothermal energy from the Earth’s interior instead of oil.

Rinata Kazak is the only researcher from Linköping to go to Baku. In the past, the university has received between four and six seats, but this year the UN has decided to prioritise poorer countries that were previously under-represented. Also, the conference venues have limited space. Last year’s meeting in Dubai welcomed 84,000 delegates. Baku only has capacity for around 40,000.

In addition to being an observer, Rinata Kazak’s major task will be to get delegates’ replies to the survey that Linköping University has carried out at the climate summits every year since 2007. It has questions on what the participants think about different climate measures, about the distribution of responsibilities between the countries and much more. Through the survey, researchers can see how opinions on climate and the environment have changed over the years.

From Kharkiv to Linköping

Rinata has been working at Tema M for two years. She is originally from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, where she was an associate professor at the university. It came to an abrupt end when Russia attacked in February 2022.

“On the first day, my daughter, who was then five years old, asked if we were going to die now. I said, no, of course not. But I didn't know that.”

After spending several weeks in a bomb shelter, they managed to escape to western Ukraine and then on to Sweden, having received an invitation from Professor Björn-Ola Linnér at Tema M. Her daughter now goes to school in Linköping and speaks Swedish fluently.

Rinata is bilingual and speaks both Ukrainian and Russian, which may be an advantage when visiting the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. Not only when moving around the city, but also when people at the conference are to be persuaded to reply to the survey. This year, it has been translated into Russian for the first time.

“People from post-Soviet countries often don’t want to reply to surveys, so I’ll try to reach the Russian speakers to get their perspective,” she says.

An international law against ecocide

The major discussions in Baku will concern worldwide emissions trading programmes, but Rinata Kazak’s own research interest lies in the legal aspects. There is currently no international legislation on extensive environmental degradation, known as ecocide, and she wants to contribute to designing one.
For example, an international law could be used to hold Russia accountable for the destruction in Ukraine, but also to enable small island nations in the Pacific to better assert their right to compensation when threatened by climate change.

Despite the war, Ukraine will also participate in Baku with its own exhibition pavilion. Rinata Kazak has been invited to talk about her research.

“It will be about ecocide and how we can use the experiences of the war for the future.”

Translation: Anneli Mosell