Green Theater and Business-as-Usual at COP28

In this Issue:

• Our next speaker series on December 4

• A new 350 Chicago board member

• Come visit us at Fulton Market

• Chicago has a new Department of Environment

• Heat Pumps Taking Hold in Norway

• Main Story on COP28

350 News:

Upcoming 350 Speaker Series Talk on Climate Literacy

Next Monday, December 4th, join us online for another entry in our free speaker series where Professors Oziewicz and Klees with the University of Minnesota’s Center on Climate Literacy will speak about how universal climate literacy can force a change to a sustainable society. Register here

Congratulations to New Board Member Christine Skolnik!

350 Chicago welcomes Christine Skolnik as the newest member of our board of directors. Christine has been a crucial member of 350 Chicago since she joined in 2016. Learn more about our core membership here.

350 Chicago Tabling at Patagonia Fulton Market, Dec 16th

350 Chicago will be tabling at Patagonia 1115 W Fulton in the West Loop from 12:00-3:00pm on Saturday, December 16th. We will be talking about our State Fossil Fuel Divestment campaign, our People vs. Fossil Fuels Campaign, our work on clean energy and the speaker series events, as well as raffling off a couple of our brand new T- shirts and a couple of other prizes. Come say hi!

In Brief:

Chicago Budget Passes With New DOE

On November 15, 2023, Mayor Johnson’s first budget passed easily, which among other things re-established Chicago’s Department of the Environment (DOE). As we discussed previously, the DOE was disbanded in 2012 by Mayor Emanuel and replaced with a massively under-resourced ‘Office of Sustainability’. The new DOE has a $1.8 million budget, but still lacks sufficient funding and enforcement powers. While 350 Chicago applauds this step in the right direction, as many environmental groups have mentioned there is still much more work to be done if Chicago is to meaningfully shrink its carbon footprint. 

Heat Pumps Taking Hold in Norway

A recent article came out in The Guardian showing how heat pumps are catching on in Norway due to a combination of policy incentives, taxes, and workforce training, resulting in a lower carbon footprint for heating costs even in very cold conditions.

Green Theater and Business-as-Usual at COP28

by Joshua Horwitz

The COP28 conference in Dubai once again highlights how Green Theater is used by the fossil fuel industry to put a pretty face on business-as-usual.

COP28 is the 28th annual ‘Conference of the Parties’ which serves as the formal meeting of the parties on climate change held under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This essentially serves as the governing body that negotiates agreements and enforcement under the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol. This year, the conference is in Dubai, hosted by the Sultan of the UAE, Sultan Al Jaber, who is also head of the country’s national oil company ADNOC where he has overseen a significant increase in oil and natural gas production.

Articles by the Center for Climate Reporting and the BBC have called out how the UAE and Sultan Al Jaber have been using the climate conference as cover to negotiate oil deals, promote future drilling across the world, and continue the same harmful, corruptive, and destructive practices which put us in this position in the first place.

What may be most surprising about this entire exposé is why anyone thought that the head of a country completely reliant on oil income and the CEO of their national oil company was the right person to lead a conference on clean energy in the first place. This decision only highlights the impotence of the UN and their ability to create meaningful action under the Kyoto Protocol or the Paris Agreement. The conflicts of interest in having the UAE host were obvious from the start, and activists were outraged when the UAE was appointed to host the conference back in January.

While the UAE has made some attempt to dismiss the reports of the behind-the-scenes activity, even their public statements are just as damning. In his opening speech, Sultan Al Jaber said that:

“It is essential that no issue is left off the table... we must look for ways and ensure the inclusion of the role of fossil fuels.”

The US meanwhile, does not seem to be interested in taking a meaningful role. While the US is spending more money than ever on clean energy initiatives at home through the Inflation Reduction Act, the fact is that as the biggest contributor to climate change and the largest economy in the world, we must be a leader on this issue both at home and abroad if we’re going to really stand a chance of avoiding the worst effects of climate change. It’s difficult for President Biden to be a leader when he is not even attending the conference, and instead issued a statement to express his “appreciation to the UAE for organizing COP28 in Dubai.”

The fact is that as a country we need to hold ourselves and other countries to a higher standard if we are to protect our shared planet for future generations. Business as usual cannot be the answer.