COP30: Lot's of rhetoric, not lots of action

 

A young Kenyan’s 

perspective on the 

latest Conference of

Parties.

So, the 30th COP (Conference of Parties) concluded last month in Belém, Brazil. It was quite eventful, but not necessarily in a good way. Protesters made their voices heard at the event, expressing pent-up frustrations at governments for treating the Amazon rainforest like a cheap commodity. As a young man from a country in the Global South, someone who’s seen the effects that events like severe droughts can have on vulnerable communities, I also feel frustrated at the lack of action on the environmental front by governments.

 Personally, I feel like COPs are more of a talk show than anything. The said ‘parties’ frequently make vague agreements which are often either forgotten about or abandoned entirely. To combat anthropogenic climate change, concrete, practical steps need to be taken to transition towards using sustainable and renewable energy sources.

 However, certain bodies, such as large oil conglomerates and fossil fuel exporting countries, are doing everything in their power to hinder a change to the energy status quo. This was shown by the large presence of fossil fuel lobbyists at COP30, a trend that has been present in many previous COPs and has prevented significant decarbonisation efforts. In COP30, oil-producing countries stopped a pathway towards transitioning away from fossil fuels from containing any “binding language” that would highlight concrete steps to moving away from energy sources such as coal, oil and gas. If written statements are being controlled by parties which oppose decarbonisation efforts, how will any actual action be taken to tackle anthropogenic climate change?

 Some steps in the right direction were taken, like the proposal of a Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), an investment fund to finance tropical rainforest development. This is a telling achievement, considering it was made in Brazil, one of the countries where the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is located. Deforestation has been somewhat forgotten about in global environmental discourse, as greenhouse gas emissions are what dominate environmental discussions these days, so it’s good that a framework to address deforestation was proposed.

 Despite the few agreements made at COP30, it really feels like a dud to me. It’s been 10 years since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, but what does the world have to show for it? Some commitments to renewable energy transition yes, but mostly general statements on how countries can contribute towards solving climate change, which haven’t really been followed up on.

What we need now, more than ever, is action, not speeches and ‘pledges’ which aren’t followed up on. Hopefully governments take action in future COP’s before it’s too late.