Is COP28 climate change summit turning into an oil industry trade fair? – Scotsman comment

Who would have thunk it? The oil state playing host to the COP28 climate summit has been using the occasion as an opportunity to try to strike new oil deals... What did we think was going to happen?

The UAE COP28 team did not deny the reports after documents were leaked, but helpfully told the BBC that “private meetings are private”. Well of course that’s right. What has been the main international forum at which to discuss ways to reduce carbon emissions may be turning into a fossil fuel trade fair, but that’s simply none of our business.

If that is what’s happening, all those scientists who have warned about climate change for decades better turn out to be wrong. Given their predictions have essentially been proved right by the passage of time, this is unlikely. If anything, the threats caused by global warming have been increasing more quickly than expected.

Cynicism may offer a refuge, but not a lasting one. We still should remain everything from disappointed to outraged by such flagrantly counter-productive abuse of a process upon which the world’s future depends.