Delivering Nothing

COP has become a joke that delivers nothing apart from promises that would amount to nothing.

One more year and one more COP out.

Since the late 1990s, world leaders have been meeting every year at a meeting called the Conference of Parties or COP for short. It was at the COP that the Kyoto Protocol was created. It was at the COP that the Paris Agreement was reached.

COP is an event where leaders worldwide decide how to sign agreements that look like they are making big changes while delivering none. At this point, the best way to reduce climate impact would be by NOT organising the COP. At least the world will be spared 10,000 jet rides that pollute the world even more.

Biden made the greatest contribution to climate at this year’s COP; he did not go.

One of the important things under negotiation this year was the “Loss and Damage Fund”.

Loss and damage refers to the irreversible costs of extreme weather and slow-onset disasters such as sea level rise, ocean acidification and melting glaciers caused by global heating. It is about holding the biggest fossil fuel polluters liable for the pain and suffering already caused by climate breakdown. Climate finance for loss and damage is considered separately, and in addition to, securing funds for mitigation and adaptation to help developing nations prepare for what is coming.

Source: Guardian

The list of the largest oil producers in the world

Source: Wikipedia

America is the new Saudi Arabia. They have the largest oil production capacity in the world and large portions of this production come from shale reserves.

Largest Oil Consumers in the world

Source: Worldmeters

A third of the oil produced across the world is consumed by two countries. Further, if you look at per capita consumption, China and India pale in comparison to the US. Each person in the US consumes 18 times as much as an Indian.

In this context, consider the allocations to the Loss and Damage Fund.

Governments have collectively pledged more than $400 million to establish a loss and damage fund for the victims of climate disaster.

On day one of UN climate talks in Dubai, negotiators rubber-stamped plans to get the fund up and running. The arrangements had been hashed out by a transitional committee over five fraught meetings in the past year.

[…]

Following the text’s adoption, a handful of countries promised contributions to the start-up phase of the fund. Germany and Cop28 hosts the United Arab Emirates committed $100 million each, followed by the United Kingdom (£40m or $50.5m), the United States ($17.5m) and Japan ($10m).

EU member states, including Germany, are expected to collectively deliver at least €225m ($245m).

Source: Climate Change News

Joe Biden has been pushing Congress to approve $100 billion for Ukraine so that the country can bomb itself (face it, none of those bombs will be dropped in Russia). When it comes to this fund, they could find only $17.5 million. Also, this is the “pledge”. It remains to be seen, how much they deliver finally.

So the largest producer and consumer of oil, a country that imposed its capitalistic system on the rest of the world through war and assassinations can offer nothing apart from soothing words when it comes to taking action.

This fund was announced as a great victory on the first day of COP and everything since has been downhill. The world realised that leaders worldwide suffered from foot-in-mouth disease when Sultan Al Jaber announced there is “no science” indicating that fossil fuel phaseout will restrict climate change.

Despite the urging of more than 130 countries and scientists and civil society groups, the agreement did not include an explicit commitment to phase out or even phase down fossil fuels.

Instead, it reached a compromise that called on countries to contribute to global efforts to transition “away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”.

Source: The Guardian

The statement was qualified with all words including “transition away” instead of phaseout. The hypocrisy of this statement was outlined best by the representative from Samoa.

Chennai was flooded. Australia has an island on which they place all climate refugees. Pakistan had a once-in-a-century flood this year. Island nations are disappearing. California is seeing 25 ft waves. Every forest north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the Tropic of Capricorn is on fire every year.

There aren’t 27 years to phase out, let alone transition away. Either way, none of the agreements are binding or carry any punishment. Even if the agreement said, we would ban the use of fossil fuels by 2025, it would mean nothing. It is at best a tool to shame others.

It would be best if they stop this charade once and for all. COPs are useless dramas meant to make the world believe something is being done while nothing is being done.