EU leads isolated group of countries pushing for global climate action
www.ft.com
‘Axis of obstruction’ stalls progress with poor and middle-income countries reluctant to quit fossil fuels despite peril

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/42404131

Unpaywalled (archived)

The EU and a handful of other countries have been left unusually isolated as they push for action to tackle global warming, after geopolitical schisms spilled into climate policies at the UN COP30 summit in Brazil.

The meeting of 194 countries for more than two weeks in the tropical temperatures of the city of Belém nearly ended in collapse on Saturday when the EU warned of the possibility of a “no deal”. Countries such as the UK considered walking out.

Their efforts to directly reference fossil fuels or ambitious climate action language in a final agreement were blocked again and again by China, India, and some petro-states.

…

“At a time when extreme heat, catastrophic floods and wildfires are setting new records every year, negotiators still could not summon the basic courage to stand up to fossil fuel interests,” [Martina Egedusevic, an expert in nature-based solutions and risk management at the University of Exeter] said.

Benoît Faraco, the ambassador in charge of climate change negotiations for France, said the EU and France had fought for a road map away from fossil fuels and deforestation all the way into the early hours of Saturday morning, in “bloc against bloc” negotiations, but to no avail.

“It is profoundly worrying to realise that climate multilateralism is still something that needs to be protected, that there is everything to play for,” he said.

…

More than 80 countries had initially backed a proposal for a so-called road map aimed at setting out how countries could shift away from fossil fuels during the two-week talks. By the final night of talks, the EU, UK, Colombia and a handful of other nations remained the driving forces.

…

China joined India, Saudi Arabia and other exporters in using COP as an opportunity to spar with the EU over its soon-to-be-introduced carbon border tax. The final agreement set out plans for further trade talks next year.

Other than on this issue, China remained quieter than expected at talks where the petrostates took centre stage. This is despite China’s renewable energy boom and President Xi Jinping’s affirmation that green energy is the “trend of our time”.

…

  • iii@mander.xyzEnglish
    26·
    4 days ago

    the world should rather hail (…)

    That’s a false dichotomy, a childish one, that hurts everyone.

    I presented a third option, one that would have direct positive effect locally, and long term positive effect globally. It’s the part of my comment you ignored in favour of divisive rethoric.

    If only people, like you, weren’t so short sighted, fixated on name calling and bullying. The choice isn’t “who should we bully”. We should just not bully at all. We could use the same effort to look for solutions instead.

    • Sepia@mander.xyzOP
      5·
      4 days ago

      This is not bullying but legitimate critique. The state that is often bulling its neighbors is elsewhere.

      • iii@mander.xyzEnglish
        18·
        4 days ago

        Sadly, that divisive rethoric seems to be the only thing you’re capable of. Once again, completely ignoring constructive, cooperative thinking, to focus on namecalling and your ego.

        • Greddan@feddit.org
          3·
          4 days ago

          Dude. These countries are more often than not garbage tier shithole dictatorships that murder and enslave with no remorse. They have no intent to cooperate. You’re saying we should give Jeffery Dahmer a hand job to convince him to stop killing people.

          • iii@mander.xyzEnglish
            11·
            3 days ago

            These countries

            You’re talking about the majority of the world. If you read the article, the EU is part of only a very small group of countries, representing a very very small part of the world’s population and emissions.

            We can, and are, antagonizing them all. They can and are simply ignoring us. How does that help climate change mitigation? Or is that not the goal?

            You’re saying we should give Jeffery Dahmer a hand job to convince him to stop killing people.

            Where did I say that?

            I, instead, proposed leading by example. To stop the hateful speech and namecalling that is hindering policy change.

            I proposed actually developing good technology and policy internally, that others will want to copy, for their own benefit.

            What we’re currently doing, screaming and shouting like a toddler, is clearly not working.

            • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
              1·
              3 days ago

              Your whole plan is to show them how things would be better if they just followed the EUs lead. Imagine you’re on a boat. There are a bunch of holes in it and you want to patch them up, but other people keep putting holes in it. So one day you lament, “Why can’t these boat-holers stop putting holes in the boat so we can all stay afloat longer?” And then someone comes along and tuts you saying, “Now now, no name calling. If you don’t want to put holes in the boat, just stop and show them how much better it will be!” The problem is, the boat’s still sinking, and faster all the time, and if the boat-holers don’t quit it, a whole lot of people are going to drown. Moreover, putting holes in the boat is not only cheaper than not putting holes in the boat (let alone patching it) you can make more money putting holes in the boat! Given that context, can you see how the people who want to stop putting holes in the boat would get frustrated with the people putting holes in the boat, and would be baffled by someone more concerned about the descriptive pejorative than they are by the other guys putting holes in the boats?

              • iii@mander.xyzEnglish
                1·
                3 days ago

                Given that context, can you see how the people who want to stop putting holes in the boat would get frustrated with the people putting holes in the boat

                Yes. Can you see how starting to namecall like a toddler is a bad plan? Now you destroy all possibility of cooperation, and the boat is still sinking. It makes things worse!

                would be baffled by someone more concerned about the descriptive pejorative than they are by the other guys putting holes in the boats?

                Let’s say a boat is sinking. There’s people making holes and there’s toddlers screaming and shouting and kicking everyone in sight. Can you see how a reasonable person would see both as an annoying hinderance that make things worse, not better? How one group telling they don’t like the other group is useless and frustrating childish behaviour - the boat is sinking, remember?

                Your whole plan is to show them how things would be better

                Yes. Work on technology and policy others will want to copy for their own benefit. It’s the only thing that’s going to work.

                The growth in solar power production, for example, isn’t because it’s green. It’s because it’s a cheaper way of producing power in many situations. That’s all that is.

                The current methodology of bullying is not working, even doing the reverse. Emissions are currently at an all time high, and rising. Your plan is to keep doing that same thing, antagonize the majority of the world, and expect a different outcome?