The oil industry is immoral, and what does that say about you?
The worst thing about reading the COP28 final statement is to think of the idiotic expression on your face as you realize that the climate summit was a complete waste of time and that we have all been taken for fools.
Some have welcomed a document that finally includes a sentence saying that we are approaching the end of fossil fuels, albeit without any kind of deadline or commitment. Having the secretary general of the UN, António Guterres, say “fossil fuel phase out is inevitable” is of little help, considering that there’s no deadline and no apparent intention to phase out anything at all.
Others point out that faced with lower demand in the future, oil and gas production in 2023 was the highest in history, more than double what was produced a decade ago, and that the oil industry plans to double output.
Putting phrases on paper when, in practice, they commit to absolutely nothing is a pointless exercise. There is talk of eliminating subsidies to oil-producing companies as a key part of climate action, but the reality is that those subsidies amounted to $7 trillion, paid by governments eager to offer their citizens cheaper fuels, despite the fact that the G20 committed to eliminate them as early as 2009, and then in 2021, only to quadruple them the following year. Screw ’em.
