This is the first time that Beijing has presided over a major intergovernmental meeting on the environment and wildlife ecologist Vanessa Hull is eager to see the country step into a global leadership role.
The author’s salvo follows a gathering at which activists were harassed, surveilled and sidelined by Egypt’s authoritarian government as lobbyists from Exxon, Chevron and other fossil fuel giants swarmed the venue.
Globally, as much as $3.8 trillion must be invested every year to hold back global warming, write Peter Schlosser and Michael Dorsey. For comparison, the IMF says $5.9 trillion was spent on fossil-fuel subsidies, in total, in 2020.
An analysis of the U.N.’s provisional attendance list shows that 636 fossil fuel lobbyists have been registered at the talks, up 25 percent from last year’s COP26 conference in Glasgow.
The main fears of the Club of Rome’s 1972 study have been reaffirmed, the authors say. But there is still a scenario allowing for widespread increases in human wellbeing within the planet’s resource boundaries.
As the U.N. annual climate gathering is underway in Egypt, Oxfam spotlights the role of big corporates and their rich investors in driving the global climate crisis.