The end of the summit brought varied results but generally was not cause for celebration. Fossil fuel advocates dominated as well as water user industries such as dairy and meat producers. Small advances were made in language usage and descriptions, but little was done to commit to hard core meaningful changes to slow our carbon output.
The ones who are celebrating is Big Oil.
China, USA and India are the worst offenders and US lobbyists are so strong that they are still in control. The irony and injustice is that many small island nations who are not industrialized and are not carbon offenders are the first to suffer the consequences of rising oceans.
The world leaders love money more than their home.
Read the original message here at Desmog.
Message From the Editor
COP28 was expected to come to a close this week on Tuesday, December 28, but instead ran overtime into Wednesday, December 29, before reaching a deal. In those final hours, the oil industry was battling a push for a ‘phase-out’ deal with promises to capture carbon. Oil and gas lobbyists at COP28 have been presenting carbon capture storage as an “abatement” technology that could allow the continued burning of fossil fuels, despite the huge technical, economic and environmental challenges of deploying the technology on a scale that could curb global emissions.
Also at COP, our reporters saw triple the number of big dairy and meat representatives compared to the year before. Our analysis reveals that over 100 delegates have traveled to Dubai as part of country delegations, which grants privileged access to diplomatic negotiations. This number is up from just 10 in 2022.
Investigative reporter Cartie Werthman took a closer look at the public relations companies active at this year’s conference. Since being designated COP president in January, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who heads Abu Dhabi’s national oil company, has cycled through a dozen or so American PR companies, according to filings with the U.S. Department of Justice, which requires public disclosures from businesses seeking to influence Americans on behalf of foreign governments under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
And DeSmog revealed that social media influencers were paid to boost the UAE’s climate credentials in and around COP28 in what appears to be a coordinated PR effort by the oil-dependent host nation. Joey Grostern dove into the Instagram influencers that were paid to boost UAE’s climate credentials over COP28.
Catch up on all our other COP28 news here and stay tuned next week for more climate news.
Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: editor@desmog.com. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter.
Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director
