Fussing and Troubles in COP Land

Climate activist Andrew Griffiths, policy director of Planet Mark and cofounder of the Carbon Accounting Alliance, posted:

Despicable… it would seem that COP28 UAE continue to use and abuse their hosting of hashtag#COP28 to promote hashtag#fossilfuels….

He is referring to the United Nations’ 2023 Conference of Parties held in a petrostate (United Arab Emirates) that continues to haunt the hard-core climate activists. Griffiths continued:

I just received an unprompted email from ADIPEC Exhibition and Conference hosted by ADNOC Group, UAE’s national oil and gas company. Maybe it’s pure coincidence and they’ve found my email through some random data supplier, but to my mind the main reason they would have my email address and think I’d be interested is if the hashtag#COP28 Green Zone or other fringe events database was shared with ADNOC to support their marketing.

Funnily enough, by attending COP28, I fundamentally did not sign up to get UAE’s latest fossil fuel industry info – I attended an international United Nations climate summit that UAE happened to be hosts of. Safe to say, I’ve unsubscribed, but it is utterly infuriating that hashtag#fossilfuel companies continue to flagrantly manipulate, abuse and corrupt international processes to tackle hashtag#ClimateChange just so they can continue to line their own pockets with yet more untold wealth.

Griffiths ended:

Can the hashtag#UNFCCC PLEASE sharpen up the rules around petro-states behaviour when hosting COP summits?

Pushback to Griffiths was immediate. Adam Hoult commented from the activist Left:

On the wider point: yes, the UAE is a major oil producer, but it’s also been diversifying hard. Non-oil activities now make up roughly three quarters of the economy which was the flip revers not too long ago, that’s a major win! and regulators have been pushing hard on better climate and sustainability disclosures with new laws having been introduced this year! The country’s investing heavily in clean energy and transition tech precisely to reduce its dependence on oil and hit its aggressive net-zero targets.
So by all means hold institutions to account, but let’s not kick people who are genuinely trying, imperfectly yes, but still making every effort to move things in the right direction. Encouragement will surely get better results than outrage.

Hoult added:

There are fundamentally two approaches we can take when trying to drive change for this planet; Being a positive and encouraging voice or being a negative and discouraging one. In my view, being a positive and encouraging voice will lead to far better outcomes in the long run for the planet and for everyone on it.

Take “greenhushing” as the example. It didn’t even exist as a phrase a few years ago, but it does now. Why? Because companies and individuals have tried to do the right thing, have fallen short of some exacting standard they didn’t fully understand at the time, and then been publicly ridiculed or worse, cancelled as a result.

Then others see this happening and many conclude that doing nothing is safer. Why risk being attacked for trying, when doing nothing avoids all risk of backlash? And those that do still try to take action actively hide their efforts for the same fears which deprives the world of any learning or encouragement that might give to others. In my view that is a net negative for the planet.

I’m not saying that either approach is inherently right or wrong and you are, of course, free to choose whichever voice you prefer.

Watching his intra-activist skirmish, I commented:

But if fossil fuels are ‘greener’ than wind and solar and are affordable for the masses…. And if you rely on politics to intervene in free markets and then find out that others can play that game as well.

Griffiths responded:

Except fossil fuels are demonstrably more expensive, harmful and the idea of calling them ‘greener’ is positively laughable and smacks of growing desperation on your part Rob.

Besides, I continue to look forward to seeing you lobby for the global removal of the trillions in fossil fuel subsidies Rob… more than happy to see fossil fuels compete with renewables on a level playing field!

I answered:

The idea that CO2 is a pollutant is under intellectual fire–and might be legally reversed in the US. Stay tuned.

Fossil fuels are affordable, reliable, and naturally chosen by consumers with taxpayers neutral. And yes, their footprint is smaller than industrial wind and solar. Hundreds of wind/solar projects are being stopped in this regard with the locals rebelling against.

I would check your premises and consider switching sides.

Final Comment

It’s a futile crusade against CO2 and fossil fuels with the activists debating what has gone wrong and what is going wrong. Bad messaging? Villainous disinformation? Nope. It gets back to energy and climate realism. But the Deep Ecologists, with an anti-capitalist mentality, want to control the environment to control humankind. That is not going over well at all.

Andrew Griffiths, finally, needs to check his premises and get out of the red tape business. His mission in life is to compel or shame corporations into measuring their CO2 metrics with the aim of aiding Net Zero.

Net Zero is impractical, wasteful, and, as U.S. Department of Energy head Chris Wright stated, sinister and evil. Electricity rates and the UK economy have been compromised enough by the anti-industrial policies. It is time for private property and voluntary exchange with government demoted.

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