The Annual COP Con

With the start of COP30 this week, the world is in for 11 days of intolerable green virtue-signalling. This year’s UN climate conference takes place in Belém, Brazil, on the outskirts of the Amazon rainforest. As always, it is an opportunity for the world’s great and good to jet across the planet and lecture the rest of us about climate change. 

Before COP30 even kicked off, the Brazilian government began prepping for the summit by cutting down 100,000 trees from the Amazon, in order to build an eight-mile, four-lane highway. This was so that leaders, journalists, and activists would be able to reach the newly built, luxury accommodation by car. As well as the highway and new hotels, the local airport has been expanded and Belém’s port was redeveloped to accommodate cruise ships (which are being used to house delegates from the poorest countries). All these projects had previously been suggested by the state government of Pará over a decade ago, but were abandoned due to the environmental backlash over developing in and near the rainforest. Conveniently, though, they could be revived in preparation for COP30—along with justifications of how supposedly sustainable the new highway is, with politicians touting its 30 wildlife crossings, fencing for vegetation, bicycle lanes, and solar-powered LED lighting. 

The Amazon rainforest highway set the tone for the entire summit and its gobsmacking hypocrisy. While the likes of France, Spain, Kenya and others are demanding a tax on business, first-class, and private air travel, how are delegates to COP30 able to reach Brazil? They are certainly not sailing across the Atlantic, à la Greta Thunberg. In fact, UK energy secretary Ed Miliband flew between Belém and Britain not once, but twice, racking up 24,000 air miles for the journeys. This reportedly cost the taxpayer around £22,000 and created roughly six tons of CO2 emissions. According to the Telegraph, Miliband was accompanied by Rachel Kyte, Britain’s Special Representative for Climate, who it was reported earlier this year managed to log 76,000 air miles in eight months—the equivalent of flying around the Earth’s circumference three times. When asked about the carbon footprint for Miliband’s jet-setting, the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero maintained that “any emissions from attending Cop are dwarfed by delivering our agenda.” 

What is that agenda, exactly? According to Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, one of his top priorities is smashing “fake news and misrepresentation” and fighting “the rejection of scientific evidence.” In his opening speech on Monday, Lula warned that these so-called climate deniers “control the algorithms, sow hatred and spread fear” and declared that “it’s time to inflict a new defeat on the deniers.” This was surely a not-so-subtle reference to U.S. president Donald Trump, who in September described climate change as a “con job” and has been scathingly critical of COP. The U.S. has, unsurprisingly, decided against sending any delegates to Belém this year. 

There are, however, some American politicians who made the trip voluntarily. One of them is California’s loathsome governor, Gavin Newsom. His Trump-bashing was far less covert than Lula’s—yesterday, Newsom said of the president: “He’s an invasive species, he’s a wrecking-ball president. He’s trying to roll back progress of the last century. He’s trying to recreate the 19th century. He’s doubling down on stupid.” Ironically, it is Newsom and the other eco-zealots who are trying to drag the world back in time—not even to the 19th century, but to the Stone Age. Aside from cracking down on so-called fake news, the other top priority for COP30 this year is to wean the world off fossil fuels and the other means by which the world achieved civilisation. At the opening of a leaders summit last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres proclaimed that this would involve “peaking global emissions immediately; cutting them deeply this decade, accelerating the phase-out of fossil fuels, slashing methane, and safeguarding forests and oceans.” During the same speech, he pressed the importance of acknowledging the “moral failure” and “deadly negligence” of not ensuring the global temperature did not rise by 1.5 degrees. Leaders would now have to “choose to lead, or be led to ruin,” according to Guterres. 

This kind of apocalyptic talk is nothing new from either Guterres, nor the green set. But how many people are still listening? Attendance at COP has been steadily declining. In 2023, COP28 hosted 84,000 guests in Dubai. A year later, Baku’s COP29 saw around 67,000 guests. This year, the number is more like 56,000. In a similar vein, Dubai drew in roughly 154 world leaders to the opening summit, while Baku had about 80. Belém has fewer than 60.

One group that the COP summits do draw in without fail is fossil-fuel lobbyists. The Guardian reported earlier this month that over 5,000 lobbyists representing the interests of oil, gas, and coal firms were given access to the climate negotiations over the past four years, enabling them to scupper the plans of climate activists. Since COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, lobbyists have even been invited to take part in official events. 

Lobbying aside, there are plenty of reasons for global leaders to be wary of fossil-fuel phase-outs. And, in previous years, COP has been, ironically, hosted by countries that benefit the most from the production and consumption of ‘unclean’ energy. COP28 was held in Dubai, where United Arab Emirates industry minister and then COP president refused to commit to a full elimination of fossil fuels—much to the dismay of activists. Instead, he called for “reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, so as to achieve Net Zero by, before or around 2050, in keeping with the science.” The UAE had also planned to use the annual event as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals with 15 other nations. At Baku last year, the Azerbaijani presidency went even further. President Ilham Aliyev extolled the virtues of fossil fuels, announcing that “oil and gas are a gift from God … The people need them.” Once again, COP29’s Azerbaijani CEO was caught backing backroom deals with oil and gas firms. 

All this is to be expected, because COP is not really about saving the planet. Rather, it serves as an opportunity for international do-gooders to come together and prove how virtuous and eco-conscious they are. For the rest, it offers an ideal networking event to seal some deals and lobby for the assets that keep economies afloat—and thank God someone is. If the green ideologues had their way, the world would have long given up the reliable, abundant energy sources that power civilisation. Gas, oil, and coal have lifted millions out of poverty, fed billions, and lengthened lifespans. The more people working to ensure that this continues, the better. 

In many ways, it’s a good thing that COP is always so farcical. It lays bare just how ridiculous and unworkable this slavish environmentalism really is.