So COP30 just wrapped up. Those of us who were expecting next to nothing are unsurprised.
Here’s a quick quip from the BBC, from a piece published just before the shindig wrapped up:
Host Brazil had hoped countries would agree to set out how to move away from fossil fuels - but a draft deal released on Friday morning failed to mention coal, oil and gas, whose emissions are the main cause of climate change.
ABC News reports that:
It took an extra day, but delegates at COP30, the United Nations' climate conference, have reached a deal on a final agreement.
The agreement, however, falls far short of the high expectations many delegates, environmental groups and non-governmental organizations had going into the annual conference in Belém, Brazil.
Despite more than 80 countries calling for a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels worldwide, the primary cause of human-amplified climate change, that demand did not make it into the final text.
Finally, allow me to quote the European Parliament’s own website:
The outcome of COP30 secures a very minimal basis for global climate action, but the pace remains far too insufficient to meet the urgency of the climate crisis. This result confirms that the gap between climate ambition and concrete emission reductions remains consistently large. This is not the major step the world needs now. President Lula set the bar high, and the EU came with the intention of taking the lead in a coalition of ambitious countries. However, the resistance from, among others, the oil states was too great, and the geopolitical balances have clearly shifted. Together with the United Kingdom, the EU had to row against the tide to salvage any ambition. This increasingly isolates Europe from the rest of the world. The EU must now urgently forge coalitions to prevent us from becoming isolated again in future negotiations.”, said Mohammed Chahim (S&D, NL), vice-chair of the delegation.
So was this pathetic weak tea worth cutting down tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest and building 8 miles of f cking ROAD THROUGH IT so conferees could attend? Was it? WAS IT?
It. Was. NOT.
Which begs the question: what now? WHAT?
Remember - those “thought leaders" and key delegates and oil company lobbyists (who apparently outnumbered every other type of attendee) and plenary session moderators and diplomats and government officials are not going to protect you. They’re not going to protect us. They are not motivated to do so.
They are going to protect their yachts and jets and power and clout and insider perks and bespoke private luxury residences in Paris and Dubai and their stock portfolios and their private islands and their f cking PRIVILEGE and wealth and the status that they think will save them.
Are you as angry as I am? I humbly submit that you should be.
Anyone who was paying attention already knew that COP30 was going to be COP OUT 30. Anyone who was already paying attention knew that no action would be pledged, no real limits imposed - or even paid lip service to - bar some performative talk of renewables and voluntary limits and future coalitions.
So here’s the down and dirty, and the quick gut check: what’s our next move?
And remember, when you answer that, that THERE ARE MORE OF US THAN THERE ARE OF THEM.
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Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment!
I also have a Substack: climaterevolutionnow.substack.com
