Lights out for COP27 in Egypt — as expected, unambitious and deeply disappointing. Let’s increase the stakes for the 2023 COP28 in the United Arab Emirates:
• All 30,000-plus delegates will be accommodated in a large climate refugee-style camp, designed for 3,000 — tents, refugee camp food, rationed water, electricity blackouts, barbed wire fencing and pit toilets.
• Fossil fuel industry lobbyists are put in their own tent, far into the desert, as they are now banned from negotiation tables. BYO food and water (pay from windfall profits), one pit toilet.
• COP27 delegates who are no-shows at COP28, for any reason, will each pay a $1-million penalty into the loss and damage climate justice fund. Delegates who leave early, same penalty.
• Delegates who fly to COP28 will pay a $1-million penalty into the loss and damage fund.
• If no significant and binding steps are taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2030, as judged by a council of attending environmental groups, government and industry delegates will pay $1 million each into the loss and damage fund.
• All these penalties will increase to $10 million at COP29 and to a fitting $30 million for the COP30 anniversary.
No more fun, no alcohol, no distractions. Focus, be ambitious and get the work done, for our collective future! Happy COP28!
Julius Halaschek-Wiener
Blewett