Subscribe
Donate
heading background image

Zero Carbon

With Chris Hatch
Photo of the author
December 1st 2023
Feature story

Doing deals in Dubai

“COP28 president denies using summit for oil deals,” read the caption across my screen on the eve of the United Nations climate conference.

That publicity probably wasn’t the kind of green puffery the emir was promised when he agreed to host the annual climate talks, but it certainly hasn’t deterred hordes of fossil fuel lobbyists from descending on Dubai this week.

Thanks to some solid investigative reporting, we learned the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been using its role as host to plot oil and gas deals with at least 15 countries. The Centre for Climate Reporting obtained leaked memos written by the UAE’s COP28 team to prep for bilateral meetings.

Colombia was to be told the UAE’s state-owned oil company, Adnoc, “stands ready” to develop that country’s fossil fuel resources.

Chinese reps were to be pitched on Adnoc’s expertise “to jointly evaluate international LNG opportunities” in Mozambique, Canada and Australia.

Venezuela and Saudi Arabia were to be assured: “There is no conflict between the sustainable development of any country’s natural resources and its commitment to climate change.”

The meeting notes were prepared for Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber — conveniently and simultaneously head of the state oil company, this year’s climate talks, and the UAE’s renewables business. One stop shopping even Trump Tower can’t offer.

The UAE wouldn’t confirm which deals had actually been discussed but didn’t deny using COP28 meetings for business. “Private meetings are private,” was the official line at first. The journalists were able to confirm at least one instance of commercial discussions.

With outrage mounting and the opening session approaching, al-Jaber pivoted, protesting perhaps too much: “These allegations are false, not true, incorrect and not accurate,” he declared on Wednesday.

“Let me ask you a question: Do you think the UAE or myself will need the COP or the COP presidency to go and establish business deals or commercial relationships?” A fair point, but perhaps not as compelling as he imagined for anyone wondering why an oil CEO was appointed to broker climate negotiations.

Neighbouring Saudi Arabia was also caught oily-handed in the lead up to COP28. Investigative journalists from the same outfit got details on the kingdom’s “oil demand sustainability program.” With oil demand projected to plateau and decline, the Saudi government aims to hook African nations on fossil fuels.

“The Saudi government is like a drug dealer trying to get Africa hooked on its harmful product,” said Mohamed Adow, from Power Shift Africa.

“The rest of the world is weaning itself off dirty and polluting fossil fuels and Saudi Arabia is getting desperate for more customers and is turning its sights on Africa. It’s repulsive.”

“Repulsive” but different more in strategy than intent compared to the Canadian and American industries’ push to deepen Asia’s dependence on fossil fuels.

It’s not just Big Oil exposed where the sun doesn’t usually shine. DeSmog got hold of plans by Big Meat, uncovering documents from the world’s largest beef company and industry outfits like the North American Meat Institute and the Global Dairy Platform. They’re planning a “full force” showing at COP28 to present meat as “sustainable nutrition.” Beef, as you may know, is the coal of the food system, generating roughly as much climate pollution as India, the world’s third largest emitter.

The livestock industry has been getting results. The final copy of the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells the tale. The scientists themselves recommended a shift to more plant-based diets, cutting GHG emissions in half “compared to the average emission-intensive Western diet.” That penultimate draft was leaked by Scientist Rebellion because the published report strangely omitted any mention of plant-based diets or any reference to reducing meat-eating in wealthy countries. Meat and dairy weren’t mentioned at all.

If you’ve been following climate politics long enough, you probably remember the bombshell report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2006. The FAO has been remarkably quiet on the subject ever since. Former FAO officials came forward last month saying: “They were censored, sabotaged, undermined and victimized for more than a decade.”

The problem with writing off these global gatherings is that, to borrow a phrase: If they didn’t exist, we’d have to invent them. Surely we want the governments of the world to get together and hash out what to do? And while progress is excruciating, agreements like the one in Paris really can ratchet things up.

But the UN process isn’t fit for purpose in several crucial areas. This year’s gobsmacking, unexplained spike in temperatures? Unexpected disappearance of sea ice? Mysteriously surging methane emissions? None are on the agenda. Far from addressing these dangers, the UN process doesn’t even seem capable of launching a concerted global investigation.

And while climate chaos accelerates, delayers revel in the spectacle the COPs have become.

If you’d been wondering where the axe-the-tax team might start hacking after carbon pricing and heating appliances, that Poilievre post might be your answer. Freedom to burn.

Seventy thousand people is pretty excessive. Although there does seem to be selective outrage even on that point. This is the biggest, toughest global problem we face. And attendance is lower than a major consumer electronics convention. It’s more like the seating at a major sporting event, though well short of the biggest burns. The Las Vegas Speedway hosts about twice that number while the Indy 500 has permanent seating for over 250,000.

And it is curious Poilievre didn’t mention Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s 100-strong delegation. Nor the pavilion, Dubai metro ad campaign and delegation led by Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe. If the COP process is really so farcical, what does that make Poilievre’s provincial partners? And why would fossil fuel lobbyists bother converging in numbers beyond any national delegation?

One of the clear upsides of the UN climate process is that COPs are one of the only forums where countries from the Global South can make their voices heard.

On the very first day of this year’s negotiations, the global community agreed to operationalize a “loss and damage” fund. Addressing loss and damage has been a key demand from developing nations and one the big polluters have resisted for 30 years, fearful of admitting liability for damage around the world. It’s actually an extraordinary moment — the first time a summit has reached any agreements so early. Credit where it’s due: You don’t acquire as many hats as COP president Sultan al-Jaber without serious negotiating chops.

Canada’s Steven Guilbeault, minister of environment and climate change, played a useful role in breaking the logjam at last year’s summit. Guilbeault broke from other developed countries and publicly agreed to loss and damage negotiations (to the consternation of the White House). The Americans and other rich holdouts eventually followed along.

It’s tempting to be skeptical that wealthy countries will ever pony up real money for loss and damage. The UAE and Germany immediately pledged US$100 million each. In total, about US$450 million has been announced. By contrast, the flood damage in Pakistan last year is estimated around $40 billion.

But any global solidarity is welcome these days and even staunch advocates from the Global South are pleased with the progress. “Starting COP28 on a positive note sends a message of hope that the multilateral process can deliver,” Climate Action Network International’s Harjeet Singh told Canada’s National Observer.

“Although the decision to operationalize the loss and damage fund could be much stronger, it represents a much-needed trust-building measure.”

Focus now turns to energy issues. Al-Jaber has urged governments to triple renewables and double the rate of energy efficiency. In October, the United States and China jointly agreed to the tripling “with the goal of displacing fossil fuels.” Agreement from those two countries has often cleared the way for broader agreements and the energy transition has picked up enough momentum that the goal seems plausible.

But building out renewables is not the same as phasing out fossil fuels. Modern capitalism has proven a very effective metabolizer, whether its our social networks or solar panels. A much tougher test is whether countries can bring themselves to name the primary cause of climate change and agree to phase out fossil fuels.

Last year, over 80 countries announced themselves ready to “phase down” fossil fuels. An impressive number but it leaves 118 to go and these include obstructionists like Saudi Arabia and Russia. When countries do agree, they often insert weasel words like “unabated” fossil fuels, as the G7 did earlier this year (code for waiting on carbon capture).

The UN secretary-general says: “We cannot save a burning planet with a firehose of fossil fuels. (It) is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce. Not abate. Phaseout.”

And the world’s top climate scientists are backing the call.

The roundup

Delay and denial

The Conservatives have been filibustering federal sustainable jobs legislation for a month. “Now, the federal government is trying to break the logjam with a motion to impose a strict deadline on the committee,” reports Natasha Bulowski.

The move was immediately applauded by Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, Canada's largest labour organization with 50 affiliate unions.

“I am thrilled that we have a pathway forward,” Bruske told Canada’s National Observer on Thursday evening. “Workers are so worried about their future. Making headway on this issue on sustainable jobs and this bill is critically important.”

The filibuster has brought some of the Conservative party’s most ardent climate deniers into the spotlight. MP Earl Dreeshen went on a rambling tirade about problems he says never materialized: the hole in the ozone layer and acid rain, both notably tackled by an earlier incarnation of the Conservative Party. “Massive hurricanes, massive forest fires,” Dreeshen jokes. “The facts don’t bear it out.”

The president of the Alberta Federation of Labour thinks you ought to watch a short clip:

In other committee shenanigans, the one investigating oilsands tailing leaks was blocked from calling for “human health studies, increased monitoring and an audit of tailings ponds, after Conservative MP Gérard Deltell ran out the clock.

“Critical questions about tailing pond leaks at Imperial Oil’s Kearl facility are still unanswered after the second round of testimony by the Alberta Energy Regulator.”

Chiefs of Ontario to court over carbon pricing

Ontario First Nations leaders say Canada needs to fix a “discriminatory” carbon price system. They’re asking the Federal Court to order the feds to negotiate exemptions. The Chiefs of Ontario argue: “The federal government failed to address their repeated concerns and blocked their exemption request only to then issue a carveout targeting Atlantic Canada,” reports APTN.

“A First Nation leader called the move ‘completely avoidable’ if the federal government had only ‘showed up to the table.’”

“We want climate action to be meaningful and have results, but not at the disadvantage of our communities, and that’s where the discriminatory comes in,” said Abram Benedict, Grand Chief of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne.

Ontario gas plants

Ontario’s electricity battles have turned into council-by-council scraps at the municipal level. This week alone:

  • Town council in Napanee, Ont approved expansion of the area gas plant after an offer of $4.8 million from a Crown Corporation.
  • A grid-scale battery energy storage project near Toledo is dead after Elizabethtown-Kitley Township council banned all such proposals until 2026, following local misinformation campaigns about batteries.
  • On the plus side, Loyalist Township refused a proposal by Kingston CoGen to build a new 100-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in Bath, Ont.

Pitching heat pumps

It’s taken some brutal poll results and vicious controversy over the carbon tax, but the prime minister is getting hands on with heat pumps.

First Nations and ‘good fire’

First Nations across Canada are calling for the return of fire stewardship, reports Matteo Cimellaro. “Other jurisdictions, like fire-prone California, have passed laws that remove liability for tribes conducting controlled burns.”

“For decades, good fire, often referred to as cultural burning, became criminalized and stigmatized across Canada. But now, there is a greater desire for it, even among forestry companies and B.C.’s provincial government that saw nearly three million hectares burn in 2023.

Victory in Belgian court

The Brussels Court of Appeal ruled governments of Belgium must cut greenhouse gases 55 per cent by the end of this decade (compared to GHG levels in 1990), reports VRT. The court ruled in favour of non-profit climate group Klimaatzaak, representing 58,000 co-plaintiffs. The judges ruled governments have so far taken insufficient measures to protect the human rights of citizens.

Waterskiing world record

“On Lake Muskoka in Ontario, the Canadian National Waterski Show Team executed the first waterskiing pyramid done behind an electric powerboat,” reports Muskoka411.

The boat was made by Canadian manufacturer Voltari Marine Electric Inc. “It was a chance to showcase the power of our new 260 model, which handled the eight-skier load beautifully,” says CEO Cam Heaps. “We loved the combination of Canadian tech and Canadian athletic talent – it was an exhilarating moment.”

Also a lot less stinky according to team captain Geordie Newlands: “It’s so powerful – it pulled us all off the dock with such ease.”

“We breathe a lot of exhaust behind the boats and there was none of that at all. And it’s so quiet – makes for easy communication between the driver, the spotter and the skiers. It was a totally different experience and we loved it.”

Two-thirds of Canadians want climate regulation on finance sector

Sixty-five per cent of Canadians support the government passing new sustainable finance regulations. Only one in three believe banks and other financial institutions would live up to voluntary regulations, according to new polling conducted by Pollara for Environmental Defence and Ecojustice.

“Given that two-thirds of Canadians want climate-related financial policy, the government should start using this federal policy lever,” says Julia Levin from Environmental Defence. “People in Canada get that a safe planet means a better quality of life, and as a result, they want their financial institution to invest in climate solutions instead of climate pollution.”

Fossil fuel treaty +1

The president of Palau announced his country in the Pacific Ocean would become the ninth member of a negotiating bloc for a fossil fuel treaty to complement the Paris Agreement. Speaking at COP28 in Dubai, president Surangel Whipps Jr. said:

“We are witnessing the consequences of ignoring the planet's limits—floods, droughts, heat, famine, death. The solution to the climate crisis requires everyone’s participation. Today, Palau joins Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and other nations in calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. We are sovereign countries, however we share one planet.”

Solar leap

The world doubled its installed solar capacity in the past 18 months. It’s an enormous leap in such a short period, driven largely by China, which has forced the price of solar modules down toward one cent per watt. And it makes the goal of tripling renewables entirely plausible.

Bloomberg NEF projects significant ongoing growth but not as fast as the last 18 months, unless other countries supercharge installations as well.

Oblivia Coalmine

Climate politics too earnest and depressing? I’ll leave you with Oscar-winner Olivia Colman’s role as “Oblivia Coalmine” — a dark, unearthly crossover between dominatrix and oil exec in the kind of satire only the Brits seem to really pull off.