Can the UAE find the strength to swap RealPolitik for RealAction?
Following the slew of pre-COP scandals including the host country allegedly using the climate negotiations to hold backroom oil trading shindigs, the mood chart on day one trended upwards as the gavel came down, announcing the operationalising of the Loss & Damage Fund with over $600 million already pledged from a number of nations.
Loss and damage progresses
The announcement on Loss and Damage was perhaps the best tribute to the memory of Professor Saleemul Huq, a key voice for the Global South countries over a multi-decadal COP-history. Saleem was also a friend and inspiration to many across the world, so this is especially fitting.
Even so, finance cannot be used an instrument purely to massage media attention, especially when the estimated amount of current loss and damages from climate impacts is quoted by the Loss & Damage Coalition to be $400 billion per annum.
COP mood trends upwards
Now the mood is trending upwards, other key agenda items are coming into sight. One is the Emirates Declaration on Food & Agriculture, which as of this moment, 134 countries have signed up to. This is to tackle land use emissions and promote soil heath and regenerative practices globally. It is desperately needed with carbon emissions from this sector accounting for an estimated 30%.
More fossil fuels equals mass destruction
With emissions still rising and all the major coal, oil and gas producers in the world, including the host nation, expanding production, the public has a right to question whether the COP process is at all serious about tackling the root cause. Saudi Arabia has already objected to the language of ‘fossil fuel phase out’, preferring (in polite legalise) ‘fossil fuel phase down’. One implies a cessation, the other a reduction.
In the UK, cigarette packets are now emblazoned with diseased body parts to emphasise the risk of using tobacco products. Going by the logic of COP thinking, we can keep sticking pictures of wind turbines and solar panels across the marketing of their fossil fuel products whilst our climate and ecosystems degenerate in plain sight. When I spoke to Professor Julia Steinberger recently, she paraphrased Ghandi, saying:
‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win. The ignoring thing happened. The laughing at you with overt climate denial happened. This is the fight, right? This is an overt fight.’
Tzeporah Berman: “Got into Dubai late last night. Opened up my curtains in my hotel this morning to what I now know is the largest single site natural gas power generation facility in the world. Fitting. I am going to stare at this through the haze of pollution for two weeks. Welcome to #cop28“
