By Phillip Huggins

The importance of a successful COP29 can’t be overstated. We know the quality of unprecedented unity and action which needs to happen: 

• Nations must update their Nationally Determined Contributions [NDCs], as is called for by the guiding Paris Agreement. 

• These updates must be ambitious and transparent so as to give hope that we can still keep below 1.5 degrees warming. 

• Without honest and generous ambition, the drift will continue towards a catastrophic 3.1 degrees of warming. 

• The NDC’s must include clear commitments on mitigation and adaptation, and must address the kind of losses and damage many are already suffering, as Pacific leaders have poignantly conveyed. 

• All countries must prioritise the urgent phase-out of fossil fuels. 

COP29 is being held in Azerbaiijan, a country south of Russia and bordering Iran, which relies on oil and gas for 90 percent of its export income. Yet ambitious climate action is what is needed. This includes much in the area of ‘climate finance’ so those most in need have the capacity to mitigate the current effects of climate change and make sensible adaptations to what we know is coming. 

Crucially, cooperative climate action at COP29 is also action for peace. It would say, should it happen, that we prioritise our collective future over national rivalries, enmities and corporate interests. Crucial, because after 28 previous COPs, this one needs to do so much more than any before. Ambitious outcomes need to be agreed quickly so implementation is not delayed. There must be no more compromises, no more talk of magical geo-engineering solutions that prolong fossil fuel use. No unnecessary distractions like the idea of nuclear power plants here, already sufficiently critiqued as folly. 

Here in Australia, we are in a relatively safe place and with boundless opportunities to provide regional neighbours with encouragement by the pace and quality of our own transition to renewables. Many Australians are cooperating wonderfully. 

The desperate need is for intelligent bipartisan cooperation. The transition to a society that is net zero carbon emissions is so complex and the consequences of failure will be catastrophic. The clear need is for the quality of national cooperation we meet in other emergencies. Not politics that fans resentment, amplifies doubts and makes people more anxious in an already anxious time. It’s hard to know what else to do that will bring reality to our political discourse. 

We just have to persist …  An actor friend, who is also an expert on Dante, decided this week to sew a simple message on silk and stand with it outside a central city train station in Australia. His silk banner says simply: ‘Thank you for taking the train.’ 

In times of hate and fear, in times where the survival of planetary life depends on the decisions we make now, the best lives are those that respond with love. 

Bishop Phillip Huggins is the director of Ecumenical Studies at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. An earlier version of this article appeared in Pearls and Irritations, John Menadue’s Public Policy Journal.