COP29: Fijian sugar minister says delegates attending UN climate summit 'wasting time'

Charan Jeet Singh, Fiji's sugar minister and a millionaire businessman, has described delegates attending the United Nations climate summit COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, as a "financial burden to their respective countries".

Singh, who was part of the 55-member Fijian government delegation to COP29, took to social media to express his dissatisfaction about the meeting.

"My assessment of COP meetings and having first hand experience in the COP 29 meeting is that most of the attendees representing are just wasting time and are financial burden to their respective countries," he wrote in a Facebook post on Friday.

"In future we need to send a very lean team of professionals, experts and negotiators who are objective and can deliver their hard and clear message to COP 30 come next year.

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Singh believes Fiji cannot be seen watching from the side anymore.

He also claimed that 80 percent of climate funding to Pacific Islands goes to non-governmental organisations and governments for travel, consultancy, and wining and dining.

"Enough of this drama please. Let's all be serious to save our Islands nations and the livelihood of our citizens and the generations to come.

"We need funds to work and make life better for our citizens, not just talk. Let's walk the talk."

Fiji's lead negotiator in Baku and Ministry of Environment and Climate Change permanent secretary, Sivendra Michael, told Islands Business that COP29 is "not an exciting journey".

"It is a very tedious process, and it is about remaining focused and trying to take each day as it comes," he was quoted as saying by the regional magazine.

Last week, Fijian Deputy Prime Minister Biman told AnewZ that COP29 allows "a lot of opportunities...in the overall objective in addressing the impact of climate change on the livelihoods of people."