COP 27 - One More Underwhelming Climate Conference?

       Climate Trace analytics looking at the greatest global CO2 emissions in 2021

'Rich countries don't care about climate' 

Namibia's President Hage Geingob

This time they were meeting in Egypt. But reality suggests getting the big, rich countries either seriously to reduce their emissions or pay big bucks to the smaller, financially impaired nations that continue to bear the most pain from climate change, continue to be an exceptional challenge. Even as post-Ian Florida was pounded by yet another hurricane disaster (Nicole), getting rich countries to do what only they can do seems interminably hopeless. Oh sure, there’s progress, but when political winds blow the wrong way in those nations where greenhouse emissions remain explosive – including the United States where the entire Republican Party continues to vote against climate change corrective measures and infrastructure – reality is truly disheartening. We have so many excuses. The pandemic, Putin’s war, excessive costs, etc., etc.

China (clearly the worst), India, Russia, Europe and the United States remain the major guilty parties. For example, “A single steel factory in Jiangsu, China, emits 43 million tons of CO2 every year—more than the entire country of Madagascar or Nicaragua. It’s one of more than 70,000 individual sources of climate pollution listed on a new map [above] made from what is now the largest, most detailed database of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.” Adele Peters, writing for the November 8th FastCompany.com

There’s frustration as island nations face total destruction from rising seas, subsistence farmers watch their families starve as barely arable land dries up and blows away, third world nations deal with flood waters that destroy their cities and towns, and both animals and people deal with searing heat that is making vast regions of the Earth uninhabitable. There’s lots of denial along the way, blame and finger-pointing, corporate interests and the governments they support pretending to address their environmental crimes by public relations campaigns that falsely portray these miscreants as transitioning to the cutting edge of alternative energy and ecological responsibility. Metrics, site by site, now provide clear proof to the contrary.

“‘You can’t manage emissions if you don’t know what they are,’ says Gavin McCormick, founder and executive director of WattTime, an environmental tech nonprofit that is part of a coalition of organizations, data scientists, researchers, and artificial intelligence specialists called Climate Trace, which built the inventory and the map. The database includes everything from cargo ships to landfills—the biggest climate polluters in energy production, transportation, waste, agriculture, and heavy industry.

“Countries are often slow to release emissions data, so that information can be out of date by the time it’s available, and even official emissions reports can be inaccurate. Climate Trace makes the most detailed calculations possible for each source. At cattle feedlots, for example, where there are emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane, they use satellite data to measure the size of the facility, and then use an algorithm to identify whether it’s a dairy or beef operation and to estimate the number of cows. That gets multiplied by an estimate of emissions per cow for that location.” Peters. And still we talk about what needs to be done… and don’t do it.

The United Nations sponsors an annual gathering of nations to address the obvious. Here’s the way the UN described this year’s event: “From 6 to 18 November, Heads of State, ministers, and negotiators, along with climate activists, mayors, civil society representatives and CEOs are meeting in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh for the largest annual gathering on climate action.

“The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP27 – builds on the outcomes of COP26 to deliver action on an array of issues critical to tackling the climate emergency – from urgently reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience, and adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, to delivering on the commitments to finance climate action in developing countries.

“Faced with a growing energy crisis, record greenhouse gas concentrations, and increasing extreme weather events, COP27 seeks renewed solidarity between countries, to deliver on the landmark Paris Agreement, for people and the planet.”

Even as he described his legislative climate change agenda, the largest direct financial commitment to combat climate change by any nation, Joe “Biden’s [November 11th] reception at Sharm el-Shiekh was far different than his triumphant visit to Scotland last year for COP26, where world leaders praised him for undoing Trump-era policies and committing the United States to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At this year’s event, in Africa, developing countries have been much more aggressive in demanding financial compensation for climate damage caused by industrialized countries — primarily the United States, European nations and China — and they have been deeply skeptical of financing deals and claims of progress by Biden and other U.S. officials in the first days of the conference.” Washington Post, November 11th.

Ah, these climate conference come and go, but still we have less than a decade to make some stunning CO2 containment reversals. Concessions and commitments are made, sometimes clear statements of tangible targets but mostly abstract and meaningless pledges to abstract goals. But basically, the planet is way behind where it should be to make a real difference, few nations have met their goals and the communication needed to achieve the necessary results are further hampered by wars and geopolitical tensions… not to mention political recalcitrance to implement change. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and current generations suffer as they know future generations may just die… because it is just too easy to kick that can down the road.