The moving goalposts of COP

February 23, 2024

Jeremy Webbs The COP and climate change: a spent force (21/2) conjures up that sporting metaphor of moving goalposts. With every Conference of the Parties (COP), the net zero by 2050 target recedes. Every resolution brings a watering-down of goals. Every year the warnings from the UN Secretary General become more alarming. But COP, co-opted by fossil fuel interests, waters down the urgency rather than raises it.

Quoting Professor Howden, Webb makes clear this nexus between COP and the fossil fuel lobby: resolutions are replete with weasel words such as calls on, instructs, requests, transitioning away, orderly and equitable manner. This language would be laughable if the consequences were not so dire. Without strict monitoring and consequences for those failing to meet targets, those responsible for rising emissions will simply conduct business as usual. Their misinformation, in the form of technological solutions such as carbon capture and storage, carbon offsets, clean coal and gas as a transition fuel, is designed to lull the populace into a false sense of security. Shareholders are soothed. How else can we explain COPs lack of urgency?