The UAE Consensus at COP28?

Don't ask the Pacific Island states

I’m in Paris. It doesn’t seem like it should be a 7 hour flight from Dubai to get here, but it was. I guess the geography of Eastern Europe kind of blends together in my mind. We got in a bit late, and I abandoned my plans to take the train into the city to stay overnight at Sacré Coeur. They have a dormitory I thought would be an adventure to stay at. But it’s already dark, and it’s rainy, and I have to be back at the airport by 6am tomorrow. And I’m not particularly proud to admit that I might be adventured out. So I got an airport hotel for a good rate and will just chillax for the evening.

My article in Christianity Today has been posted online. You can find it here. I think even if you don’t have a subscription, you can see one article for free. There are probably some people in my readership who won’t agree with (or might even be offended by) some things written there under my name. Before judging me too harshly, send me a note and ask if I really wrote that, or whether the editors there reframed what I said for their more conservative evangelical audience. I suppose I could have pushed back on some things, but figured that to the Greeks I’ll become like a Greek to try to win the Greeks! It really was a good experience overall writing for them.

One of the emphases throughout the piece was my interaction with a couple of people from Pacific Islands (Tuvalu, Figi, and the Solomon Islands, though that latter one didn’t get named in the article). That must have been fairly prescient on my part, given the response from the delegation from Samoa at COP28 earlier today.

But first, the agreement which Sultan Al Jabar has dubbed “The UAE Consensus” (we’ll see if that moniker sticks… undoubtedly that was carefully planned to continue the greenwashing… er, I mean the PR from Dubai). There aren’t a lot of YouTube videos of the final announcement yet, and the best one I could find is this one from the Washington Post (but you may need a subscription for it?). I like it because you hear him introduce things and “invite the CMA to adopt the draft position” and then wait approximately half a second before saying “Hearing no objection, it is so decided.”

The big point in the agreement was that countries would agree to transition from fossil fuels “in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” John Kerry is the special envoy from the US, and evidently he had a pretty prominent role in getting more into this agreement than was there yesterday. He said, “The message coming out of this COP is: We are moving away from fossil fuels. We’re not turning back. That is the future.”

But not everyone is happy about it… back to the Pacific Islanders. After the long standing ovation following Al Jabar’s gaveled pronouncement, the delegation from Samoa was given the floor. They claimed that their group of Small Island Developing States (of which there are 39), wasn’t invited for input. And while they’re not going to try to undo things now, they registered a pretty strong complaint. Here’s a good video of the protest from Samoa, which includes: “We have made an incremental advancement over business as usual, when what we really needed was an exponential change in our actions and support” and “this process has failed us.”

One of our CCOPers said today that he met a Foreign Service Officer from Samoa at the airport. He said the entire process the last day was done in secret with Al Jabar, John Kerry, and the executive secretary calling countries in one at a time to strong arm them into agreeing. But no Pacific Island countries were included in these meetings of what the final text would say. That makes me sad at the end of this. Read my CT article and the Pastor from Figi I quote extensively (actually, I don’t think I said he was from Figi, just that he is the General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches), and you’ll see why I’m sad. The agreements that were made are not going to save the cultures of many of those island nations.

Rev. James Bhagwan, the General Secretary for the Pacific Conference of Churches. He met with the CCOP group for about an hour one day.

After Samoa’s speech, there was wild applause from some quarters of the room (say the CCOPers who were still there). And Al Jabar responded with, “Thank you Samoa. We’ll note your comments in the report.”

In other words, “nothing you have said matters to us now.” In my CT article, I quoted the representative from Tuvalu from a session I attended. He said, “How can I go home from this meeting and tell them our country’s future has not been secured, and the world doesn’t seem to care?”

Indeed. I’ll probably write one more summary of the COP28 agreement (and relate any adventures I have getting home from Paris) once more of the news has come out. Probably not tomorrow…