COP28: Hypocrisy & Climate Change
If hypocrisy always accompanies the climate summit, this COP28 sounds like a joke.
Many traditional Italian jokes start like this: there is an Italian, a French and a German. Now add that they meet up in Dubai to talk about climate change. Okay, for real, COP28, the annual climate summit, is now held in Dubai. Whether you are Italian or not, you’ll laugh because it sounds like a joke!
By the way, we can expand this joke, including other countries. There are three British men who flew on three private jets to Dubai to attend a meeting led by an oil and gas CEO to talk about not using oil. And, of course, not killing the planet to satisfy their lifestyle!
In fact, according to The Independent, Sunak, Cameron and King Charles each take on private jets to travel to COP28. Three private jets to talk about cutting emissions! Surely, the right thing to do!
We could continue with the other countries in the world; the pattern doesn’t change. So, the joke gets shared.
The joke: a petro-state for climate change
Not only is COP “whatever the number,” the conference where world leaders gather to discuss climate change for about five days and then go back home with nothing done. Specifically, they postpone the change for the next 15 or 20 years, which is pure madness. It reveals a total lack of understanding of the climate emergency and a willingness to make change.
But, this year, it is even more absurd: they join in Dubai. Precisely, world leaders gather in a country whose only power relies on oil to talk about climate change. Conflict of interest? It doesn’t concern them! Private jets, helicopters, shopping in giant shopping malls – an energy-absorbing country whose energy and water consumption per capita is the highest in the world.
What are they talking about? Where are we heading?
To conclude, we share Mario Tozzi‘s words:
“There is little use in gathering at conferences like COP28, where it is more important not to step on the toes of a destructive economy than to worry about the health of the Earth. They can spare us the mockery.”
Enough with the climate joke! We cannot listen to politicians and billionaires who travel on private jets telling us how to consume! This hypocrisy is disturbing. We are fed up with it. Aren’t you?