LETTER: COP27 must stop ignoring Chinese elephant in the room

It’s ironic that Coca-Cola, that purveyor of carbonated fizzy drinks in polluting plastic bottles, is a sponsor of this year’s COP27 in Egypt. The secretary-general of the UN’s attempted a rendition of Chris Rea’s, “Oh no, this is the road to hell” was just awful, while Boris Johnson scampered around in a pathetic bid to upstage the UK’s latest prime minister, regurgitating his wife’s latest dire eco predictions. Even Greta Thunberg has boycotted, calling it a “greenwash”.

What is this Davos in the Desert likely to achieve, apart from terrifying us mere mortals and encouraging borderline neurotics to stick themselves to London’s motorways? COPs 1-26 didn’t result in any meaningful carbon reductions, so why should the 27th edition be any different?

Everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room. China’s “developing” economy is in such dire need of expansion that coal use is being actively encouraged. Because doing otherwise could seriously endanger the career of the second “helmsman,” Xi Jinping, there is a net zero chance of any change.  

Europe and New Zealand can adopt sackcloth and ashes and persist in attempts to terminate cow farts and ban motor cars, but nothing any other country does will make even a measurable difference. If, as predicted, China increases coal burnt in 2022 by 7% or 300-million tonnes, what difference could even Eskom make if all its coal-fired stations broke down?

James Cunningham
Camps Bay

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