2023-12-03
Many may view COP28 as a sideshow, taking place as it does in the UAE which many of us may struggle to pinpoint on a map of the Middle East.
Nevertheless as a sideshow it must rank right up there with the main shows, boasting as has been variously reported either 70 thousand perhaps 97 thousand "delegates" and possibly an influx of around 140 thousand persons altogether. And no, they didn't come by bicycle.
The COPs are, as my learned readers will know, charged to work out the practical steps necessary to achieve the Net Zero objectives as set by the luminaries at the UN-WEF "partnership" and their many "stakeholders". Nevertheless, the politicians being much in evidence, the primary discussions reported seem to be centring around the language to be used in that awkward final communiqué - should they talk of phasing fossil fuels "out" or phasing them "down"?
As the COP28 President no less (host nation UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber) has stated (reportedly slightly testily) that "there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels" one can only imagine how this discussion will end.
Whether there will be time left to devote to determining any kind of actual action plan beyond the usual pious pontificaions remains to be seen, but it's early days perhaps - after all, this is only the seventh COP to be held with this objective.
I'll leave it there.
