BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Nisreen Elsaim has been a climate activist for a dozen years, and much of her work focuses on the intersection of war and climate change. It became personal in April 2023, when he woke up to explosions and gunshots of a civil war breaking out in his native Sudan.

Elsaim, her husband, and their young son eventually fled the country. Millions of people displaced by war This destroyed crops and livelihoods. Those heading to refugee camps found themselves displaced again when heavy rains and flooding destroyed shelters and severely hampered aid distribution in a country the United Nations considers among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change.

It’s a story Elsaim told at the United Nations climate talks in Baku, which he said should succeed. countries like it Having the opportunity to successfully adapt to climate change.

“We do not have the privilege of losing hope,” he said.

The main goal of COP29, as this year’s talks are known, is to work out how much money rich nations will pay to help developing countries like Sudan. It’s a task that all sides — world leaders, protesters and experts — say has been made more difficult by the wars surrounding Gaza and Ukraine.

They say wars prevent us from confronting the climate crisis. They are wasting money that could be used in the climate fight. And they cast doubt on the world’s ability to cooperate.

“We are meeting at a moment when our faith in our ability to stand together has been broken,” Jordanian Crown Prince Al-Hussein bin Abdullah said in his speech at the opening days of Baku. “Saving our planet must begin with the assumption that all life is worth saving. The solidarity we need depends on embracing this truth.”

Many world leaders used their keynote speeches to describe how extreme weather conditions devastate their countries, exacerbating or making uncertain issues such as poverty, energy security, and access to water and food. This, they said, risks further conflict.

“Climate change is now emerging as a major global threat and is influencing the escalation of geopolitical tensions. First of all, eradicating poverty worsens the problems of food and energy security, as well as access to water and resources,” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of Uzbekistan.

In the Middle East, Israel’s war in Gaza has caused widespread destruction, including the collapse of water and sanitation systems. This has also set back Gaza’s progress in a number of environmental areas, including solar energy, desalination plants and wetland restoration, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. The destruction of solar panels threatens soil and water by leaching lead and other heavy metals, the UN said.

According to a 2023 report from the War Greenhouse Gas Counting Initiative, Russia’s war in Ukraine sent the equivalent of 150 million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; Without this war it would not have happened. Researchers partly funded by the European Climate Foundation. This is more than the annual greenhouse gas emissions of a country like Belgium.

Billions of dollars that could be used for poverty eradication, climate finance, education and other good causes are instead going to war, said Achim Steiner, chief executive of the United Nations Development Programme.

“We are a more divided world, and a divided world is struggling to sit around the table and overcome differences to focus on common interests,” Steiner said.

Dozens of protesters in Baku specifically targeted Western support for Israel. One of them, Lise Masson of Friends of the Earth International, said countries such as the US and Britain, as well as the European Union, could spend more on climate finance instead.

“It is the same systems of oppression and discrimination that put people on the front lines of climate change and put them on the front lines of conflict in Palestine,” he said.

Catherine Abreu, director of the International Climate Policy Center, a network of organizations and individuals working on climate action, acknowledged that wars contribute to “cascading crises” and can expand a government’s ability to respond to other problems. And he said it would be “incredibly powerful” if these wars ended and military spending was immediately shifted to climate action.

“You know, we could see an acceleration of climate action, especially as the ability of developing countries to adapt and respond to these crises is better supported by the wealthy global north,” he said.

But he said he sees broader challenges — COVID hangover, heavy debt burdens and economic slowdowns — as primarily responsible for slow progress in climate negotiations.

Greg Puley, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, acknowledged concern that global conflicts could prevent leaders at COP29 from reaching “the most ambitious agreement possible”. But he and others are determined to avoid it.

“We cannot afford to continue business as usual. We cannot afford a challenging geopolitical environment that will prevent major reductions in emissions and major new investments in adaptation and resilience,” Puley said. “If we don’t take bold action now, we won’t be able to respond to the climate-related disasters of the future.”

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Pineda reported from Los Angeles.

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