The annual United Nations COP climate change meetings have had a limited impact on the real world of increasing carbon emissions and continuing climate disasters. Instead, they are used by governments to postpone real action to some time in the future, and to make grand speeches that signify little.
And increasingly, these meetings are used by fossil fuel companies for greenwashing, as they pose as noble actors doing their part to combat climate change.
Greenwashing by companies
Fossil fuel companies are no longer able to deny the links between fossil fuels and climate change. Instead, they are finding ways to make themselves appear environmentally responsible. They invest in flashy ad campaigns, sponsor environmental initiatives, emphasizing their work on research and development. Meanwhile, they continue to exploit fossil fuels on a massive scale.
Greenwashing by governments
World leaders make impressive sounding promises about emissions reductions, renewable energy investments, and climate action plans. However, many of these commitments lack any substance and are often overshadowed by policies that favor the fossil fuel industry.
Moreover, the concept of “net zero” has been used to avoid definite plans to reduce the burning of fossil fuel. Instead, government plans rely on unproven technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for a large part of their future emission reductions. Net zero is also conveniently planned for some time in the future, after current leaders have retired and handed over the management of the global heating catastrophe to new leaders.
The COP process
The Paris Agreement adopted at the COP21 meeting in 2015 has become the basis for greenwashing and spin from world leaders and their governments. The agreement contained lofty promises about emissions reductions, and how each country needed to make commitments to future reductions. But it required no concrete plans or commitments to reduce fossil fuel production, trade or consumption.
The result has been a succession of “ambitious” net zero climate plans, which in practice have been ignored.
The COP28 gathering in the UAE this year will review the first two-year assessment of global progress to slow down climate change called the “global stocktake“. There will be renewed commitments to “phasing down” fossil fuels – in other words continuing their use for decades to come. And there will be the usual conflict between rich and poor countries about climate finance.
UAE climate policies
The UAE, which is hosting the conference, is a poor example of how the world needs to change course on the climate. The country is is among the biggest carbon emitters in the world — about 50% more emissions per capita than the US. It is also a major oil exporter, relying on the burning of oil by other countries. It’s leaders have promoted oil and gas as a clean source of energy.
UAE’s objectives at COP28
Quite obviously, the UAE did not want to host COP28 because of its serious commitment to solving the climate change crisis. It is using its role as host as a major greenwashing effort, placing itself as the focal point of another climate conference.
In a grossly cynical move, it has chosen Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), to be the president of the meeting.
Aware of its vulnerability to critical reports on its real role in increasing carbon emissions, it has developed a communication strategy to limit any damage. The strategy refers to criticism of the UAE’s unsavory non-climate actions, such as the war in Yemen, its campaign against LGBTQIA activists and individuals and its aggressive spying and surveillance on perceived enemies.
UAE’s record on the climate
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has updated its climate “ambitions” in the months leading to the summit. It has brought forward its net zero carbon emissions target by five years to 2045, and promised to eliminate all methane emissions by 2030.
Earlier in the year, the company said it will spend $15 billion on hydrogen technology, carbon capture and the planting of mangroves. More greenwashing.
But in the real world, UAE’s emissions continue to increase. Fossil fuel production and consumption, will keep rising, which makes nonsense of its stated climate targets, and undermines global attempts to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
Underlining his country’s commitment to burning more oil and gas, the UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment Mariam Almheiri has said “The world is not ready to switch off fossil fuels”.
Fossil fuel representatives at COP
In the past few years, fossil fuel companies, like Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC, have increasingly used the COP summits as places to lobby for continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels. After a campaign by activists and NGOs against their presence, the United Nations has decided on a “compromise”. Fossil fuel interests are now required to declare their affiliation when registering for the conference.
This arrangement is unlikely to have much effect. Polluting companies will spend more on their spin campaigns, and governments will continue to protect “their” oil, gas and coal interests.
The shameless spin and lies from fossil fuel interests will continue until they are kicked out the COP climate process for good.
