Nations strike deal at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels
Nations strike deal at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels
Representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed at the COP28 climate summit on Wednesday to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuels to avert the worst of climate change, a first of its kind deal signaling the eventual end of the oil age.
It is not like it is a binding document. No law will be derived from it. Nobody will be held accountable in 10 or 20 years. Nobody will go prison if not. Nobody will remember their names. Is there even a fine or something?
It is a total feel good self therapy charade.
No, but it is saying that every other country will transition away from fossil fuels and they all signed it. So if somebody says"But X country is not doing their part, so why would we" the answer to this is that we all promised to do it and that country X is an asshole for not transitiong away from fossil fuels. However do you want to live in another asshole country.
At the same time you have a place where some of the most powerfull people in the world talk climate. That means a lot of small iniatives are started on COPs. However small on a global stage still mean billions of dollars and touching millions of lifes.
I‘ve read every summary to every COP since they began in the 90s. I can not share your enthusiasm. It is a talk festival without visible actions. They talk since 30 years and you try to tell me with a straight face that anything significant happened already touching million of people? How? Where? In 2001 at COP6 they agreed on carbon sinks. Where the fuck are they? Twenty-fucking-years and nothing happened. A lot of money is thrown around and a lot of people line their pockets with cash from these funds while every year we have new oil production and CO2 emission records. Please give me your top 3 points of things that actually happened in the last 30 years of talks at COP that I can get your optimism.
Take one example, my home country of Canada. Our government has signed on to every climate accord and "commited" to the targets. Have we actually met any of those targets? No. Have there been any new laws or regulations that can have the necessary outcomes, even in principle? No. The "commitments" are not worth the paper they're written on, let alone the cost of the meeting itself.
Oh sure, there is a bit of picking at nits around the edges, but nothing at a scale that matters. By now, we should already have adapted to the outlawing of new fossil fuel projects of any kind, not still wondering why our "green" government bought a new pipeline project that a private company gave up on.
Personally, I am very disappointed by this weak "compromise". I did not expect a lot from this meeting in a petro-state overrun by fossil lobbyists but seeing what is now sold as big step is very disheartening.
The part that's disappointing is this:
The new deal is not legally binding and can’t, on its own, force any country to act.
We can't actually get a binding deal to end fossil fuels out of the COP process though; the ability of the petrostates to veto things they don't like make that impossible.