COP27 – a depressing outlook
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
Alan Thornett assesses the COP currently taking place in Egypt process and points to its weaknesses and the very real dangers we are now facing of a totally inadequate outcome from it.
Nonetheless, despite all his criticisms he is convinced that the process is worth supporting and that ecosocialists who have encouraged boycotting it are making a mistake.
This article was originally published by Red Green Labour on Thu 17 Nov 2022. Read the original here.
After the first week in Sharm El-Sheikh – COP27 is at the brink
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The following is from a recent MediaLens piece:
Meanwhile, BP has just reported a huge profit due to high oil and gas prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. The fossil fuel giant made £7.1 billion for the period from July to September, more than double the profit over the same three months last year. As we discussed in a recent media alert, BP is making large sums of money from oil in ‘liberated’ Iraq where the company is causing extensive human and environmental damage.
Likewise, Shell announced a massive profit of £8.2 billion for the same period, its second highest quarterly profit on record. Reuters reported that the combined quarterly profits of four of the largest global oil companies was almost £50 billion.
These eye-watering sums, in the face of climate breakdown, are both outrageous and immoral. And they just skim the surface. But it’s much, much worse even than this.
Aaron Theirry, co-founder of Scientists for Extinction Rebellion, recently pointed out that:
‘The world’s largest oil and gas companies are set to invest $930 billion over this decade in new fossil fuel projects. Whilst the largest investment banks such as J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, etc. have continued to pour hundreds of billions into the sector since the Paris agreement.’
He added:
‘It was recently calculated that fossil fuel companies already own seven times more reserves than can be burned if we are to stay below 1.5C of global warming – yet they continue to explore for more, with government backing! Mark Camanale, CEO of Carbon Tracker points out that if we look at current investment strategies then “we are heading way beyond 3C degrees”. In other words, the global political and financial elites are still marching us towards catastrophe.’
https://www.medialens.org/2022/on-the-highway-to-climate-hell-the-climate-crisis-activism-and-broken-politics/