At least 400,000 people are expected to travel to Dubai for COP28 – nearly all of them by air – to discuss how to reduce carbon emissions. The Telegraph has more.
COP28 will have the biggest carbon footprint in the history of the annual climate summit because the UAE has invited record numbers of people, experts have said.
At least 400,000 people are expected to travel to Dubai for the two-week event, organisers claimed, the biggest attendance on record.
This includes 97,000 official delegates, more than double Cop26 in Glasgow, the previous biggest of the summits.
The Glasgow summit led to emissions that were equivalent to the annual carbon footprint of around 8,000 British residents, mostly stemming from transport to the conference itself.
“Given the number of people expected here, yes this probably will have the highest carbon footprint of any COP to date,” said Richard Black, senior associate of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank.
He added that the size of that footprint “is absolutely dwarfed by the emission cuts that a deal can produce” and put pressure on the UAE to deliver a good outcome.
“So the ball is really at the feet of the UAE – they’ve chosen to host the biggest Cop in history, now they need to make it have the biggest impact of any COP in history.”
Attendance at the annual summit has risen steadily in recent years, particularly as the presence of corporations and NGOs has grown.
Chris Stark, the chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, recently told The Telegraph the conference was “too big” and had become more like a trade fair.
Among this year’s attendees, Rishi Sunak, the King, Lord Cameron and US envoy John Kerry will all travel by private jet.
A spokesman for Cop28 said: “Everyone is welcome at COP28 because everyone is needed to deliver climate action.”
A sustainability report produced after last year’s COP in Egypt, during which the UAE had a record number of delegates, recommended reducing the number of accreditations.
The UN has also acknowledged the tricky optics of increasing travel to the event. In a guide for host countries titled “How to COP”, it says scrutiny has been focused on “the apparent irony of the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions generated by thousands of participants flying in from all around the globe to discuss how to reduce GHG emissions.”
It adds: “The conferences generate considerable GHG emissions. Host countries will need to take proactive steps to achieve carbon neutrality.”
The UAE has promised to offset emissions from the event, but will not provide details of exactly how this will be done until after the conclusion of the summit.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: King Charles gave the opening address at COP28. So much for staying out of politics. You can see details of his speech here.
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Some new terms I’ve just coined:
– Carbonocrat – rich, powerful, influential figures who drive the CZ agenda and benefit in power and finance from its policies. They don’t follow the rules themselves, these are for the minions. Examples include John Kerry, King Charles, most celebrities.
– Carbonocracy – the whole CZ machine, designed to strip individual power, liberty and money from ordinary people.
Feel free to use, refine and promulgate.
Well done
And reality?
Carbon dioxide – one of many trace atmospheric gases!
Yep as David Craig points out in his book “There is no Climate Crisis“ the mere fact that we have to count the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere in parts per MILLION should tell you something.
Don’t forget Leo Decaprio….But at least he is supporting the people of Panama who are successfully fighting a Canadian blue chip from buying up huge parts the country to mine copper.
Ecochondriac is a good one also
Who’d have thought that more people would want to attend a conference in a hot dry country than a cold wet one?
“Everyone is welcome” if they have a jet.
Two weeks in the sunshine for northern hemisphere delegates.
How lurvley and think of the savings on heating at home.
The au pair will still need the heating on, unfortunately. But she’s from Ukraine, so we can turn it down a click
So pleased to go without heating such that my betters can go have a 2 week holiday in the Sun paid for by me and all the other serfs in countries around the world.
Wonder what lavish menus they have there, the best steak no doubt!
And all that food will need to be flown in.
These jet-setting junkets really expose the rank hypocrisy of the climate zealots, lol. They will probably say it’s OK because they purchased enough climate indulgences…I mean “offsets”. And failing that, that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. Or something.
Good. All that co2 is excellent plant food. I have guilt when I fly anywhere because I am seeding the air with co2 plant fuel.
However, the arrogant, cop28 rich and powerful should be brought to heal. We no longer believe your global warming bullshine. I have not believed since about 1999.
How many attendees went there by train? Not very many, I’ll wager.
Camel train..? Even fewer…
The King attending?
Yet another nail in this dreadful government’s coffin.
As for the monarchy, ‘The Windsors’ becomes ever more popular.
Can the same be said for the real thing?
Toby, who cares about the carbon footprint of this “COP” or any other? Let them whizz in, out and sideways until they disappear up their own exhaust pipes. It doesn’t matter.
Correct – the more CO2 the better, plants love it it’s the food of life animals eat plants we eat the animals oh and some plants it’s the circle of life. Oh god I feel a sing coming on!
India have said they are not prepared to compromise by not using coal as they feel they have no other choice in generating power and bringing people out of poverty. “India cannot survive without coal as it has no other options” The same is pretty much true for all developing countries.—–Sending them bribes to leave their fossil fuels in the ground won’t work. Without fossil fuels countries will remain poor. Still there are one billion with no electricity and another billion with only enough to power a fridge. ————-COP28 progress in favour of the phony planet savers is dead on arrival. Those dependent on fossil fuels will never agree to this eco socialist garbage. The wealthy west who hate the idea of the poor becoming prosperous are all for it and they eco posture and impoverish their own citizens with absurd Net Zero Policies and the US eg nearly faced mass blackouts last winter. ——–All that will occur at this latest carnival is that more climate “reparations” will be handed out to the poorest all paid for by us who increasingly cannot afford the excruciating energy prices our braindead eco parasite politicians have imposed on us with their pretend to save the planet junk science as the excuse.
I object! “Everyone needs to be here”, should say except those who oppose us due to there being no Science or any evidence at all being present! I am really hurt not to be invited (free of course)! This is all about money, nothing else. Rishi is promising £1.6 Billion to be given away. That is the next tax cut for US, gone to China and India (developing countries my foot).
The BBC have featured methane (CH3) this morning, from farming animals. They now want to cancel ALL meat and dairy, to save the planet or something. Methane (called meathane by the correspondent, very American) is a very tiny trace gas percentage in the atmosphere, but is produced by many kinds of bacteria, a tiny proportion of which operate in animals digestive systems. I am waiting for someone to point out that this is a part of natural breakdown of plant materials, outside of animals, so presumably we should “agent orange” (a severe defoliant) the entire Earth to save the planet? KIill everything? Now you see the whole plot, the whole Earth for a few elites! When will the nonsense end?
Look, the BBC would claim pigs are farting a semi tone higher because of climate change if they could get away with it. This is what activists do. ———-The BBC are climate change activists that refuse to challenge or question any of the dogma because they say it would be like giving air time to people who say the earth is flat. —-But in science (if that what something is really about) you question EVERYTHING.