A reckoning: COP 25+
Speaking truth to power: 1, 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, 8e, 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13
This exhibit spoke to me as I participated in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG7) platforms from a Geographic Information Science perspective — see Next Steps just above here — that amount to seven. But friends reported the exhibit hall looked more like and industry trade show, and specifically a petroleum show…
This is a follow-on to my previous post #12 on Climate Endgame, an update on my previous studies over the previous decade. Next on this series is Climate bombs.
It all started so well at COP15 in Paris with the Paris Agreement , where the members agreed to reduce their carbon output “as soon as possible” and to do their best to keep global warming “to well below 2 degrees C” (Wikipedia).
But then came Non-binding commitment [and] lack of enforcement mechanisms (link above). COP25 in Madrid [was] disappointing at a time when climate action and concrete measures are considered urgent[… Some] had never seen before the almost total disconnect between what the science requires and what the climate negotiations are delivering in terms of meaningful action. (Wikipedia)
COP26 in Glasgow ushered in the era of green washing, when oil companies and lobby groups were allowed to elbow out environmental groups. While I only attended on-line— the sustainable thing to do — COP27 was in Sharm El Sheik… a playground of the rich no less, and a slap in the face of inclusivity never mind decency w.r.t. Global South awash in floods and tornadoes! And if you thought that was a blip, wait for COP28 in Abu Dhabi chaired by — drum roll, you guessed it — the CEO of the local national oil co.! Note that he heads COP as Minister of Industry & Advanced Tech, but his dual role attests to middle-eastern business practices described in para.2 here, reposted here:
Doing business in the Middle East I used to joke: “You know in N. American barbecues you BYOB, bring your own bottle — about half drank alcohol and half didn’t, so that avoided offering the wrong drink and saved the host some expense — well here it’s BYOP, buy your own prince — develop relationships as far up the food chain as you can afford, as say, Kuwaiti National Oil Co. subsidiaries are headed by princes — and we were well placed as professionals or trusted advisors, sandwiched between ‘nationals’ who signed the cheques and white-collared W. Asians who did the work.”
So if you thought Sharm El Sheik looked like an oil exhibit, will Abu Dhabi not be one?! Trust me, I lived in Kuwait city for over a year over a decade ago, and visited the Middle East annually for 5 yrs around 20 yrs ago as oil industry manager of a global software company: you can read more in a mini-blog My Year in Kuwait , especially the first two posts as intro and the 4th how language&mores differ at the juncture of the Global North and South.
While I’m not at the UN, I can guess that last two COPs at that geographic meeting point is no accident. As was the COP25 planned for Chile until social unrest — ironically arising from unpopular policies trying to tackle climate change (BBC)— moved it back to Madrid. The ascendancy of the post-colonial powers (see here and here) to tackle the climate energency is a noble intent, but the absolute lack of integrity in politics since 45 in the US, Johnson in the UK and Putin in Russia means that anything goes… including hijacking COP agendas!
This only goes to show that we’ll likely never tackle the climate emergency in time, and we’re probably too late for reasons to be discussed here later on: it’s like turning around a super-tanker, it takes so long to overcome the inertia we’ll have fallen of the edge of the world before it happens.
