They must think we’re
stupid (COP 28 PRESIDENCY)
Editor. mronline.org (7-15-23). (sEE OMNI
The fox is in charge of the
chook house. Dracula is guarding the blood bank. And the CEO of one of the
biggest oil and gas companies in the world will preside over the big United
Nations climate conference at the end of this year.
KENNY STANCIL. “130+ US and EU Lawmakers Demand Removal of
Oil Executive From COP28 Presidency.” Common Dreams (5-23-23).
"Big Oil
interests have contaminated our climate for decades," said Democratic U.S.
Sen. Ed Markey. "They shouldn't be able to control our climate
negotiations for a livable future."
The ongoing campaign to oust Sultan
Ahmed al-Jaber from his role as president-designate of COP28 picked up steam
Tuesday when more than 130 lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic published
a letter calling for the oil boss to be replaced as chair of the
annual United Nations climate summit, set to take place this fall in the United
Arab Emirates.
The host nation's move "to
name as president of COP28 the chief executive of one of the world's largest
oil and gas companies—a company that has recently announced plans to add 7.6
billion barrels of oil to its production in the coming years, representing the
fifth largest increase in the world—risks undermining the negotiations,"
says the letter signed by 133 members of the United States Congress and the
European Parliament.
"For billions of people, the outcome of
COP28 and ensuing international climate negotiations will make the difference
between life and death, chaos and solidarity."
"Different leadership is necessary to help ensure that
COP28 is a serious and productive climate summit," the transatlantic group
of policymakers told U.S. President Joe Biden, European Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, and Simon
Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Notably, Biden's top climate diplomat, John Kerry, has faced criticism for
celebrating al-Jaber's selection. More than two dozen progressive members of
Congress have pushed Kerry to advocate for the designation of a new COP28
president who doesn't have ties to the industry most responsible for fueling
the climate emergency.
In addition to urging the four addressees of the new letter to
"engage in diplomatic efforts" to pressure the UAE to withdraw its
appointment of al-Jaber—head of the country's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company—as
president-designate of COP28, signatories implored the executive leaders of the
U.S. and the European Union as well as UNFCCC leadership to "take
immediate steps to limit the influence of polluting industries, particularly
major fossil fuel industry players whose business strategies lie at clear odds with
the central goals of the Paris agreement," at all U.N. climate talks.
"Current rules," the lawmakers wrote, "permit
private sector polluters to exert undue influence on UNFCCC processes."
They continued:
We request that you
institute new policies for corporate participation at COPs and UNFCCC processes
more broadly, including requiring participating companies to submit an audited
corporate political influencing statement that discloses climate-related lobbying,
campaign contributions, and funding of trade associations and organizations
active on energy and climate issues. These statements should be reviewed,
publicly disclosed, and scrutinized prior to any engagement in UNFCCC climate
policymaking processes.
The UNFCCC should also consider additional measures to establish a robust
accountability framework to protect against undue influence of corporate actors
with proven vested interests that contradict the goals of the Paris Agreement;
such a framework was proposed last year with broad-based international support
from over 450 organizations around the world and five UNFCCC constituencies
representing thousands of organizations and millions of people. These reforms
would bring much-needed transparency to corporate climate-related political
influencing activities around the world, and would help restore public faith
that the COP process is not being abused by companies as an opportunity to
greenwash.
The demand to crack down on corporations' open corruption of international climate meetings comes
as government representatives prepare to gather in Germany next month for the
U.N.'s Bonn Climate Change Conference—a crucial precursor to COP28, which is
scheduled to begin in late November in Dubai.
"It is essential that we seize the opportunity to take
actionable steps to address and protect climate policy from polluting
interference by adopting concrete rules that limit the influence of the fossil
fuel industry and its lobbyists in the UNFCCC decision-making process,"
says the letter. It was endorsed by Kick Big Polluters Out, a global network of
more than 450 organizations led by Corporate Accountability and Corporate
Europe Observatory, which made a similar appeal to Guterres in
January.
"Big Oil interests have contaminated our climate for
decades—they shouldn't be able to control our climate negotiations for a
livable future," U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
said in a statement. "As leaders from around the world come together to
envision a world that promotes clean energy and climate justice, not pollution
and profiteering, we must shut the door on the fossil fuel industry and keep
COP28 free from their influence." Markey was one of six Senate Democrats
to sign the letter. He was joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.),
27 House Democrats, and 99 European MPs.
The ongoing failure to confront the fossil fuel industry and
other highly polluting sectors has yielded life-threatening results so far, as the
lawmakers explained in their letter:
Last year, many of us
attended or followed COP27 in Sharm-al-Sheikh, Egypt. While we applaud the
United Nations for bringing tens of thousands of delegates together, leading to
a historic agreement that will help developing countries deal with losses and
damages from the impacts of climate change, the conference ultimately failed to
secure consensus from Parties to cut greenhouse gases in line with the agreed
global goals.
It did not escape our attention that at least 636 lobbyists from the oil and
gas industries registered to attend last year's COP—an increase of more than
25% over the previous year. When the number of attendees representing polluting
corporate actors, which have a vested financial interest in maintaining the
status quo, is larger than the delegations of nearly every country in
attendance, it is easy to see how their presence could obstruct climate action.
There is no time to waste in sharply cutting carbon pollution on a global
scale. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report
states that, to limit warming to 1.5 °C, global emissions must halve by 2030.
The planet has already warmed over 1.2°C, and our ability to reach the 1.5 °C
goal is moving fast out of reach, with the IPCC pegging the current probability
at just 38%. Maintaining the status quo would lead to a catastrophic 2.8°C
temperature rise by the end of the century.
"In this moment of great urgency, we must unblock the
barriers that have kept us from advancing strong global collaboration to
address climate change," the lawmakers wrote. "One of the largest
barriers to strong climate action has been and remains the political influence
and obstruction of the fossil fuel industry and other major polluting
industries. We have seen their negative influence in our home institutions; oil
companies and their industry cheerleaders have spent billions of dollars
lobbying both the European Parliament, other European institutions and member
states, and the U.S. Congress in order to obstruct or water down climate policy
for years."
"Since at least the 1960s, the fossil fuel industry has
known about the dangers of climate change posed by its products and, rather
than supporting a transition to a clean energy future, has instead chosen to
promote climate denial and spend millions of dollars to spread
disinformation," they continued. "Over a half-century later, not one
of 39 major global oil and gas companies, with collective market capitalization
of $3.7 trillion, has adopted a business strategy that would limit warming to
safe levels. Several independent analyses agree that the sector is still not
taking meaningful action to avoid the worst impacts of the crisis."
"The fossil industry must give way if there
is to be any chance of survival for humanity and this planet."
"Even more outrageous, the global oil and gas industry is
expanding amid blockbuster profits to the tune of $4 trillion last year,"
they added. "The sector has poured $160 billion into exploration for new
fossil reserves since 2020, even as the IEA has stated that no new fossil fuel
projects are compatible with limiting warming to 1.5°C. In short, in the words
of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, 'We seem trapped in a world where
fossil fuel producers and financiers have humanity by the throat.' It is time
to alter this dangerous course."
E.U. lawmaker Manon Aubrey, who co-organized the
letter alongside her U.S. counterpart, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.),
said that "for billions of people, the outcome of COP28 and ensuing
international climate negotiations will make the difference between life and
death, chaos and solidarity."
"Corporate greed and lobbyists' lies have led us into this
climate crisis," said Aubrey. "We must prevent private commercial
interests from interfering in politics and regain ownership of our
future."
Aubrey's colleague, Michael Bloss, likewise stressed that
"to make progress on climate protection, we need to limit the power of the
fossil lobby."
"Instead of letting the fox guard the henhouse, the fossil
lobby must be expelled from the conference," said Bloss. "Oil states
and fossil industries have always prevented anything that could mean an end to
coal, oil, and gas, and put the brakes on global climate protection for
destructive profits. The fossil industry must give way if there is to be any
chance of survival for humanity and this planet."
Pascoe Sabido, co-coordinator for Kick Big Polluters Out,
said that "these upcoming U.N. climate talks are our best chance at
tackling the problem head-on, with hundreds of decision-makers on both sides of
the Atlantic and both sides of the aisle backing our call for a
conflict-of-interest policy."
"So far, the U.S. and E.U. have proven to be major
blockers, siding with the fossil fuel industry," Sabido added. "If
they want to walk the talk of being a climate leader, it's time to switch sides
and back a policy not just at the U.N. but also at home."
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Feel free to republish and share widely.
Kenny Stancil is a staff writer for Common
Dreams.