Climate Conference Has Conflicting Conclusion

By FRANK LINGO

In the wake of America’s disastrous decision to entrust our country to a crazy criminal, some noteworthy news has been neglected.

COP29 stands for the 29th summit of Convention of the Parties, a generic acronym for the original 154 countries (now almost 200) concentrating on climate who have taken part since its inception in 1992. Sponsored by the United Nations, the climate conference was held in Azerbaijan (hang a right at Russia) during November 2024.

If you find it ironic, even contradictory, that a climate conference is conducted in a petrostate, where the economy is heavily dependent on production of fossil fuels, you’re not alone.

One of COP29’s goals was to slow and reverse the global warming caused by burning of oil, coal and natural gas. Unfortunately, the process has become perverted. In last year’s COP28 in Dubai, also a petrostate, almost 2,500 fossil fool lobbyists showed up to gum up the works and peddle their petroleum, according to Global Witness, a London-based watch group.

This year, Global Witness boldly caught on video the host country’s chief executive of the conference trying to sell fossil fuels to a fictional firm concocted by Global Witness. The BBC revealed the ruse in an article on Nov. 8.

Christiana Figueres, who did a splendid job on the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global temperatures, called the executive’s attempted sellout “contrary and egregious” and “a treason” to the process.

Reuters wrapped up its coverage of the conference with an article on Nov. 24, reporting a $300 billion-a -year global finance target deal with developing countries, which many criticized as woefully insufficient. These poorer countries have suffered most of the ecological effects, like droughts and floods, caused by the rich countries’ burning of fossil fuels. Some context of history is that such targets and promises have been made before but later left the recipients short-changed.

“I regret to say that this document is nothing more than an optical illusion,” said representative Chandni Raina of India.

“We are leaving with a small portion of the funding climate-vulnerable countries urgently need. It isn’t nearly enough but it’s a start,” said Tina Stege, Marshall Islands climate envoy.

President Biden called it an historic agreement but he’ll soon be out. One huge roadblock to making good on the deal is the United States, with the world’s largest economy, will be quitting any climate cooperation under control of Trump. Like other authoritarians around the Earth, Trump is aggressively anti-environmental, calling climate change a hoax.

But even under President Biden, the U.S. has hardly backed off extraction, producing a record amount of oil in 2023. To be fair, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act did include the greenest legislative initiatives in half a century.

So in a sense America is like the rest of the world. We talk a big game of making renewables a reality eventually, but we’re still profiting by producing pollution. And we won’t be sharing our stash of cash any time soon.

Next year, COP30 will be in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil, an appropriate locale called the lungs of the world. Here’s hoping for less lobbying by the petro punks and more movement toward solar and wind for our world.

Maybe down there we can catch our breath with some fresh forest air.

Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Email: lingofrank@gmail.com. See his website: Greenbeat.world

From The Progressive Populist, January 1-15, 2025

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