Despite valid reasons to be gloomy, COP28 shows that the end of the age of carbon is within sight
The global momentum away from fossil fuels is happening faster and faster and the predatory involvement of these industries in COP28 shows us that reality
Hello new readers, this is Climate Hopium and welcome back current readers. So yes, I know there’s bad climate news around having been campaigning on the issue in one way or another for over 20 years believe me, I know. However in this space, we focus on the positives and use that energy to affect change. So on to COP28, the annual global climate summit which is very much in the news for both good and bad reasons. This news has ranged from US plans to close all coal-fired power plants (yay!) to the vast amount of fossil fuel lobbying at COP28, which is itself hosted by an oil-producing nation (boo!)
But step back for a moment and consider why, if this forum and global climate momentum was so lacklustre and pointless, why would the fossil fuel industry bother with it? After all, they are all about making money and retaining their political power, as any major industry does, and they don’t like to spend cash where they don’t need to.
Why? The reason is because despite all the bad news, they know the writing is on the wall and they can see the end of the age of carbon. They engage with it because all they have left is delay. This is not hyperbole, actions speak louder than words; Heatmap.news, a new energy news start-up, noted that the spending patterns of the oil industry shows not an industry investing in the future, but one cashing cashing out. This graph below shows the shift in spending away from future oil production and into buy-backs (which are the investment way of getting cash back to investors).
This is just one data-point, but there are a constant tick, tick of others that show the general direction of travel has, at minimum, shifted away from the older fossil-fuel status-quo. Here’s a few recent examples:
Then this final one that I think really shows the shift going on and echos my point here:
There's bucket loads of terrible news from all corners, but here's something less grim. BMW have, as of yesterday, manufactured their final combustion engine at their main plant in Munich. Yes, they still make combustion engines, but this a sign of the deep changes taking place in the automotive industry. We are not at the end of the combustion engine, we're not even at the end of the beginning, but we might be at the middle of the beginning, and there's no turning back
My view here on the shift is echoed by a column in the Guardian; From China’s emissions to Australia’s offshore windfarms, things are moving on climate – some even in the right direction.
The end of the age of oil is here and COP28 shows us that they know that, for them, the party’s over and all that is left is to grab what they can on the way out. Our job is to slam that door even faster.
Woohoo!!!