COP 28: Climate campaigners freaking out

By Craig Rucker, President of CFACT, @ CFACT

 Climate campaigners from Al Gore and John Kerry, down to the oddest imported student radical, are freaking out over the draft final text as the climate talks in Dubai near their conclusion. 

At issue is whether the "outcome" will call for the "phase out" of fossil fuels, or merely call for fossil fuel "reduction" and similar "weasel words."

Either term will leave nations with tons of wiggle room to avoid, or delay, destroying their economies through energy starvation.

As veterans of the UN climate process since the whole shebang began, CFACT has seen this drama play out before.

The UN conference nears its end with no agreement in sight and goes into late night extra innings.

No matter what happens, the conference officials emerge bleary-eyed and proclaim a major victory, leaving it up to the rest of us to sort through what happened and figure it out.  Often, as is likely this time, the conference ends in de facto collapse.

"COP28 is now on the verge of complete failure," Al Gore said Monday.    "This obsequious draft reads as if OPEC dictated it word for word. It is even worse than many had feared. It is 'Of the Petrostates, By the Petrostates."  Gore concluded.

OPEC, along with Russia and China, did in fact write the text.

"The fact that the  U.N. chose a petro-state, the United Arab Emirates, to host COP28 was  an ominous sign to begin with." Wrote Michael Mann of debunked temperature hockey stick fame.  "The UAE’s appointment of a fossil  fuel executive, Sultan Al Jaber, to preside as COP28 president made  matters worse."

CNN reports that, "The secretary-general of the oil-producing group OPEC, Haitham Al Ghais, called on members and allies last week to 'proactively reject' any language that targeted fossil fuels rather than emissions.  The letter, written before the latest draft was posted, noted the  previous option for a “fossil fuels phase out” and said it would be 'unacceptable that politically motivated campaigns put our people’s  prosperity and future at risk.'" 

The announcement at COP 28 that next year's climate summit will be held in Azerbaijan, another oil producing state, has team climate up in arms.  Next year is Europe's turn, but Russia vowed to veto any E.U. member nation as host in protest of E.U. support for Ukraine.  Azerbaijan is a former member of the Soviet bloc, but not a member of the E.U. or NATO and was acceptable to Moscow.

Soon we will find out how far climate campaigners will be able to reshape the COP 28 outcome in the waning minutes of the summit. 

The actual choice will be between a text which gives Russia, China and OPEC clear language enabling them to keep their fossil fuels, or whether they will agree to simply lie about "phasing them out."

For nature and people too,