History is replete with ironies, small and large. History, or at least the people who move through and make that history, is also full of hypocrisy. In few places is that more apparent than among the people who shout about anthropogenic climate change from the drawing rooms of their expansive mansions (Al Gore) or from the deck of a private yacht (Leonardo DiCaprio) or, perhaps most of all, from the halls of the United Nations.
Which brings us to the United Nations' big climate conference, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COP33 is in the planning stages now, and one nation is mulling over the possibility of hosting that conference.
That country? Here's where that big irony kicks in, because this country has the largest carbon footprint in the world, and it's not even close: China.
China is mulling a bid to host U.N. climate talks in 2028, two sources familiar with the matter said Friday, as it seeks to burnish its reputation as a leader in the fight against global warming.
Beijing has not yet made a final decision regarding the proposal for the COP33 summit, both sources said, nor is there a clear timeline for doing so. The host does not have to be decided this year.
China’s interest was first reported by Bloomberg News.
The U.N.’s annual climate gatherings rotate among regional blocs. This year’s COP31 is scheduled to take place in Turkey, followed by COP32 in Ethiopia in 2027.
The 2028 summit falls to the Asia-Pacific.
Now that's just downright amusing, or it would be, if the crass hypocrisy weren't so outrageous.
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This is a great irony, but it's also hypocrisy on overdrive to boot. Why? Here's why, and I'm going to tell you.
First: China is far and away the largest producer of carbon emissions in the world. It's not even close. Now, I'm not as concerned about this as the climate scolds are, but being that this is all about Beijing, a city that is so filthy that when the city hosted the 2008 Olympics, they had to shut down much of the urban area's industry to allow the air to clear. China clearly doesn't give a hill of beans about carbon emissions, but if China were to hold the COP33 summit in Beijing, the climate scolds attending would have engaged in one of the biggest farces in the history of international politics.
Second: China is building coal-fired power plants, even now, at an incredible pace.
Few contradictions in modern energy policy are as striking as the one playing out across China's power sector right now. The country simultaneously holds the top position globally for new solar and wind capacity additions while also accounting for an estimated 93% of all new coal power construction worldwide. This is not a temporary anomaly or a transitional blip. It reflects deep structural forces that policymakers, investors, and climate analysts are only beginning to fully reckon with.
This isn't an anomaly. This isn't by accident. This is by the direction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is the Chinese government. Nothing happens on this scale in the Middle Kingdom without the CCP's approval. This is their national policy.
Now, this isn't a done deal yet. China is said to be considering hosting, but that consideration seems to be tepid, at best. India has already declined. The only Western nation in the region, Australia, may also make a play for the conference, which would at least be less hypocritical, given the Land Down Under's embrace of climate scoldery.
Watt's Up With That's Eric Worral has some thoughts on the problems that an Australian venue could cause, in particular for one famous scold.
For some the distance would be really hard. I mean think about poor Greta Thunberg. If Australia hosts COP33. It would take her the best part of a year to sail to Australia from Sweden or her second home in Israel. She would have to pass through pirate infested straits, crocodile infested tropical islands, risk exposure to Malaria, Dengue, and weeks of exposure to blazing tropical UV while crossing the equator, which rarely works out well for people with Nordic ancestors. She would have to choose between risking kidnap by Somali or Houthi pirates after sailing through the Suez Canal, or chancing the ferocious storms around the Cape of Good Hope or even worse, the Drake Passage. She might never arrive.
Mr. Worral also points out that this distinct lack of enthusiasm in the Asia-Pacific region may result in no COP33 at all. That, at least to my thinking, is the obvious solution. Mind you the United States, at least under the Trump administration, is wasting no time or money on this horse squeeze, but the other nations of the world have previously flown their elites in on private luxury aircraft to make pious noises about other people's energy consumption. Maybe it's time for COP to die, not with a bang, but a whimper.
If China does host what we can hope will be the last of these failed summits, however, the nations of the world will gather, the usual corral litter will be strewn about as though the venue were the stables at the Kentucky Derby, and carbon-spewing China will gain much "face." If that's not reason enough to just forgo the whole thing, I don't know what might be.
