Follow the Money: Part One

Oil vs. Climate

By Shlomo Maital

      If you want to really understand world events,  here is a simple principle:  Follow the Money.   Let’s first tackle Conference Des Parties COP 28, the climate crisis conference now being held in Dubai.  Next blog will be about the antisemitism in leading US universities.

     So, let’s say you want to organize a global conference on lung cancer prevention. Hmmm.  How about having the CEO of Philip Morris, world’s leading tobacco company, to organize and chair it?  Great idea?

     So, the COP 28 conference, the latest yearly gathering on the climate crisis, is now being held in Dubai, UAE.  The chairperson and leading organizer is Sultan Ahmed Al-Jabar, who heads the UAE Abu Dhabi Oil Do., one of the world’s largest oil producers, selling 3 million bbl. daily of oil and gas hydrocarbons.   UAE has 100 billion bbl. of oil reserves. So at the current rate, it could pump oil for over 30 years.  And that is its intention.   Climate crisis?   What climate crisis/

     Sultan Al-Jabar gets very testy, if it is suggested he may have a conflict of interest.  And among the 100,000 attendants in Dubai are a huge number of oil industry lobbyists.  Phase-out oil and gas? Heaven forbid.  The last COP conference nearly foundered when a draft resolution in that direction was tabled.  And shot down fast.

        Why is COP 28 being held in Dubai?  It costs a fortune to hold one.  So – follow the money.  The oil money is causing the problem, and they get to host the conference to solve it, right? 

            Makes sense? 

  P.s.  A small fact:  Kenya has emerged as a global leader in renewable energy: almost 90% of its electricity now comes from green sources,  90%!     If Kenya can do it,  why not the rest of us?   Why is our fate in the hands of those who caused the problem in the first place?