The very same people who are destroying our planet will gather to preach that we are all in the same boat and that everyone needs to do their part

It’s that time of the year again when government officials and career politicians will gather in one place to pretend that they are worried about the climate crisis while, behind closed doors, they negotiate shady deals that do the very opposite.

They’ll say they are doing their best but that their hands are tied and that we need to be ‘responsible’ and take this issue seriously. The speeches will pass, catering will be provided, drinks will be poured, and then they will hurry to meet fossil fuel oligarchs and ecocide committers, for the purpose of ‘negotiation’, not to negotiate how to leave fossil fuels in the ground.

Of course not. That’s none of their business. The point is to negotiate better deals for subsidies, tax cuts, and bypassing any pesky laws that should normally restrict their intentions. In return, these politicians will get funding for their respective election campaigns. We know the drill by now: big polluters sponsor an election campaign and in return they are cut some slack for their environmental misdemeanours.

COP president by day, oil company CEO by night

This year, with COP28 happening in the United Arab Emirates, it’s all even more explicit. Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, the president of the current UN climate summit, has advocated for a worldwide “gradual elimination” of fossil fuels.

However, his dual role as the head of COP28 and the leader of the UAE state oil company Adnoc makes the hypocrisy of COP crystal clearer. Additionally, recently leaked documents reveal Jaber’s intentions of engaging in discussions with many government officials regarding fossil fuel agreements during the climate summit itself.

For decades, lobbyists have inundated COP, using it as a platform to ink fresh agreements that enrich themselves while leaving everyone else worse off and destroying the planet in the meantime. The very same people who destroy the Earth are the ones that will come to Dubai to preach that we are all in the same boat and that everyone needs to do their part to solve the crisis they are accelerating.

Let’s not kid ourself. It’s all on them. The richest one percent account for more carbon emissions than poorest 66 percent, and just 12 oligarchs, with their mega yachts, private jets, mansions and investments, pollute more than 2.1 million homes. Through the corporations they own, billionaires emit a million times more carbon than the average person.

A radically new approach is necessary to reverse this destructive trend — and to deliver environmental justice in Europe and around the world.

We think that the economy should serve the people and the planet, and not the other way around. This vision cannot be implemented with career bureaucrats who call themselves politicians. That’s why we need to bring down the oligarchy and make the rich pay for the green transition.

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