Representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed at the COP28 climate summit on Wednesday to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuels to avert the worst impacts of climate change, a first of its kind deal signaling the eventual end of the oil age.
I‘ve read every summary to every COP since they began in the 90s. I can not share your enthusiasm. It is a talk festival without visible actions. They talk since 30 years and you try to tell me with a straight face that anything significant happened already touching million of people? How? Where? In 2001 at COP6 they agreed on carbon sinks. Where the fuck are they? Twenty-fucking-years and nothing happened. A lot of money is thrown around and a lot of people line their pockets with cash from these funds while every year we have new oil production and CO2 emission records. Please give me your top 3 points of things that actually happened in the last 30 years of talks at COP that I can get your optimism.
For this one there is the very obvious loss and damages fund, which has been brought throu. Then you have the nuclear alliance with a good number of countries planning to tripple nuclear production.
As for COP6 they did not agree on carbon sinks. That was the US trying to basicly say that they have a lot of carbon sinks, so them emitting a lot was totally fine.
As for me being “optimistic” I am not. I am just realistic enough to understand that the COPs are a forum to talk about the issue and some solution will be shown. That is about all that it is. The UN is not a world government and same story for COPs. In the end of the day the key are things like the Past Coal Alliance and similar projects of a smaller number of countries. The loss and damages fund being set up is good news and I bet you we will see more stuff like carbon tariffs in the future.
The loss and damage fund came through with almost no money. It’s a symbolic payment, not one that’s anywhere near compensating those harmed for actual damages.
The promise to triple nuclear capacity is to do so by 2050. This means nuclear grows far more slowly than wind and solar will.