I can understand why one might want to tune out COP28, the United Nations climate change summit set to begin tomorrow in United Arab Emirates.

There’s the fact it’s being run by a literal fossil fuel baron: Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the head of the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), which also happens to have one of the biggest oil and gas expansion plans in the world.

There’s the fact that Al Jaber’s self-proclaimed “game-changing plan” to achieve progress at COP28 is to give oil and gas companies more influence over the climate change summit, despite warnings from the U.N.’s former climate chief that the approach is “dangerous” and “a direct threat to the survival of vulnerable nations.”

There’s the fact that, because of Al Jaber’s role, Adnoc has been able to access and read e-mails to and from the COP28 climate summit office—a revelation that French MEP Manon Aubry called “an absolute scandal … like having a tobacco multinational overseeing the internal work of the World Health Organization.”

And then there is the newest, most damning scandal: On Monday, the Centre for Climate Reporting published leaked documents showing that Al Jaber has been using his position as head of COP28 to lobby foreign governments to buy Adnoc oil and gas. In other words, the documents indicate that the leader of the U.N. summit to decrease global carbon emissions has been secretly using the position to increase global carbon emissions for the financial benefit of his company and country.

This year’s COP is also plagued by disappointing engagement from the world’s biggest polluters. While more than 160 heads of states are expected to attend COP28 and its various events—including a two-day summit on Friday and Saturday specifically for world leaders—the New York Times reported on Sunday that U.S. President Joe Biden will be skipping the summit, citing anonymous aides who say he is “consumed by other global crises.”

This follows reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend COP28, nor will Russian President Vladimir Putin. That means the three largest historical contributors to the climate crisis—having emitted a cumulative 51 percent of all the CO2 that’s been released into the atmosphere since 1850, according to Carbon Brief—do not consider it a priority to have their leaders present at this year’s global climate talks.

(Biden has made no public comment about his absence—but his schedule for the first few days of the summit includes the White House Christmas tree lighting ceremony and the Kennedy Center Honors, featuring scores of celebrities.)

So I can understand why some may feel the temptation to say “screw it” when it comes to COP28—because that’s, admittedly, how I’ve been feeling. In fact, when I first learned of Biden’s absence on Monday and of Al Jaber’s plans to use the summit to sell oil on Tuesday, I decided that “screw COP28” would be the subject of this newsletter. I punched in a headline reading “COP28 is a farce,” and started writing paragraphs about Al Jaber’s corruption, and the polluting nations who couldn’t send their leaders to climate negotiations during the hottest year on Earth because they were preoccupied with louder forms of death.

But writing has a way of making things clear, and while my feelings were strong, my conclusion quickly revealed itself as both logically and morally weak. Because while choosing to ignore COP28 may feel morally righteous in the moment, it’s effectively a middle finger to the Global South, which is depending on successful outcomes at this summit to achieve crucial funding from the Global North for adaptation, mitigation and reparation.

The countries and populations most vulnerable to climate change do not have the privilege of tuning out a COP, not matter how corrupt its leaders are. If global CO2 emissions continue at current levels, the world has less than five years before the world’s remaining carbon budget runs out and the dangerous and irreversible 1.5 degree Celsius threshold is breached, according to Carbon Brief. For the nations most threatened by that future, negotiations over how to structure a Loss and Damage fund to compensate for damages, as well as negotiations over how to mend previously broken climate finance pledges by the Global North, are too consequential to be ignored.

The somber reality of the world’s rapidly diminishing carbon budget means every opportunity to make climate progress must be taken seriously, whether the people in power are doing so or not. But taking opportunities like COP28 seriously also means doing everything possible to call out actors who are wasting those opportunities, or using them as a mask to advance their own interests. As Bill McKibben wrote in his newsletter this week, “The only hope for this COP—and really for this planet—is that our revulsion at revelations like these somehow spurs the movements necessary to break the power of Big Oil.”

The fossil fuel interests attempting to corrupt COP28 would love nothing more than for us to look away. So we will continue to pay attention, not in spite of the bullshit, but because of it.

Here are some resources to learn more about the summit:

• COP 28 Is a Crunch Point for Countries on the Front Lines of Climate Change
  ”For COP 28 to be successful, outcomes must ensure that the needs of vulnerable developing countries and communities are prioritized, including fast-tracked and uncomplicated access to finance. For the Global South, these issues are fundamentally linked to global accountability, justice, trust and survival.” -Scientific American, November 29, 2023.
  

• COP28: key issues at stake and indicators of success
  ”COP28 represents an important opportunity for the Global North to gain back some of the credibility lost in the Global South over several years, during the pandemic and the energy crisis. Serious steps towards ensuring proper climate finance, loss and damage and adaptation will be key.”

  Bruegel, November 23, 2023.
  

• The future of the planet hinges on understanding these 5 key phrases

  “To help clarify the most important debates that underscore our current moment, there are five concepts to keep in mind. Together they help make sense of what needs to be done about supercharged heat waves, hurricanes, and other troubling thresholds on the horizon. Ongoing efforts in the climate movement hinge on these concepts, but they will also take center stage in Dubai at COP28, the 28th United Nations climate conference, which begins this week.”

  Vox, November 27, 2023.
  

• Cop28 president denies on eve of summit he abused his position to sign oil deals
  ”Speaking to a small group of journalists in Dubai on the eve of the conference on Wednesday, Al Jaber said: “These allegations are false. Not true, incorrect, not accurate. It’s an attempt to undermine the work of the Cop28 presidency … Never ever did I see these talking points or ever used such talking points in my discussions.”
  The Guardian, November 29, 2023.

Catch of the Day: You know who is not ignoring COP28? Emma! Here she is pictured outside a year-round greenhouse, photographed by reader Nell, resting by her protest signs for a 350.org rally.

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