COP28 Craps Out With Empty Promise

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but WSJ tells us yet again about “The Phony Climate Promises of COP28”, this time, with Kerry hyping the “unprecedented” if last second “deal” to one day phase out fossil fuels.

The Editorial board didn’t hide its contempt: “The [recent] COP28 climate confab in Dubai didn’t end with white smoke … but Biden climate envoy John Kerry is nonetheless singing hallelujah after nearly 200 countries agreed to ‘transition’ from fossil fuels. The point of the deal is to preserve the West’s illusion that its [progressive] climate policies are accomplishing something.” Notably, China & oil-producing countries had refused to sign onto an agreement COMMITTING to “phase out” fossil fuels, but Kerry & European leaders “insisted that governments at the UN summit demonstrate a common purpose to reduce CO2 emissions.”

Hence, “the deal they agreed to has all the force & idealism of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact that outlawed war.” Instead, to save face & continue the charade of past COP “deals,” the signees merely accepted a clause calling for everyone to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly & equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade.” Only a deranged lawyer would seriously think this meandering language, as eloquent as it may be, is binding on anyone. As the editors concluded: “This ‘just transition’ … won’t stop China from building more coal plants or the United Arab Emirates from drilling more oil …”

Davd Soul