On 27 September the British government granted Norwegian company Equinor and Israeli firm Ithaca Energy permission to develop Rosebank, the UK’s largest untapped oilfield due to produce oil from 2026. Rosebank’s operational emissions alone will exceed Britain’s carbon budget allocated to oil and gas production and will create more carbon emissions than the combined emissions of 28 low-income countries. It has the potential to deliver 500 million barrels of oil which, when burned, would emit further emissions equivalent to running 56 coal-fired power stations for a year. In this, Labour has allied with the Conservative government in climate destruction: had Labour leader Keir Starmer, all but guaranteed to win the next General Election, committed to revoking the drilling licence for Rosebank, it would have no investment to go ahead. Instead, Starmer has effectively given a green light to the project, continuing Labour’s climate-wrecking commitment to maintain any licences granted by the Conservative government.
Both parties have used Britain’s ‘energy security’ as justification. This is a barefaced lie: 90% of Rosebank’s oil reserves will be ‘sold on the open market’ most likely to countries in Europe with studies showing that more North Sea production will only give Britain an extra year of domestic gas charged at high global market prices. Pretence that this oilfield is about Britain’s energy crisis is even more insulting in the face of £3.75bn in government subsidies granted directly to Equinor, public money gifted to a fossil fuel giant that recently announced 2022 global profits of £62bn as the working class heads into a second winter of choosing between starving and freezing. This comes atop news that no new contracts were granted for offshore wind farms and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak postponed restrictions on petrol and diesel car sales and the gas boiler phase-out. The reality is that Britain’s deepening capitalist crisis means that Britain’s ruling class will do whatever is necessary to cling onto Britain’s privileged position in the global imperialist system against all rationale, including the preservation of nature that sustains us all.
Britain’s climate desecration comes in a year of ever-increasing evidence of climate ruin. Between July and August, the warmest global temperatures since records began resulted in devastating wildfires torching the Hawai‘ian island of Maui and continuous fires elsewhere in US and Canada. These temperatures amplified India’s monsoon season and led to extreme weather patterns such as Tropical Storm Hilary hitting Southern California and Storm Daniel hitting southern Europe and Libya. Not just Britain but capitalist countries all over the world are complicit in continued climate devastation.
Fossil capital reigns supreme
COP28 – the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties – is to be held in Expo City, Dubai from 30 November to 12 December 2023. In the face of ever more terrifying realities of the climate crisis, COP28’s stubborn persistence in perpetuating the reign of fossil capital is inexcusable. Not only is this year’s president, Sultan Al Jaber, also chief of the UAE’s national oil and gas company ADNOC, the UAE’s appointments to the advisory board include a previous CEO of British Petroleum, the chair of an Indian petrochemical company, the former Chairman of China’s national oil company, and the CEO of an Emirati oil and gas producer.
Governments at COP28 will for the first time conduct a global stock take that will set out the progress that countries have made on their emission reduction commitments. The stock take will ultimately lay out how far the world is from the ‘nationally determined contributions’ (NDCs) originally set at COP21 in Paris in 2015. With the UAE submitting its own revision to its NDC, Al Jaber has emphasised that the efforts will entail ‘the phase down of fossil fuels’. Al Jaber has come under criticism for similar statements in which he repeatedly referred to the ‘phase out of fossil fuel emissions’ instead of fossil fuels.
Both statements indicate the approach taken throughout all previous summits. Fossil fuel companies can continue extracting fossil fuels as long as the resulting carbon dioxide is somehow captured. Scientists have consistently warned against using Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology to greenwash continued extraction, stating that these underperforming projects would lead to an overshoot and consequent surpassing of climate tipping points. Driven by profit necessity, oil and gas companies use captured CO2 to pump more oil or gas out of depleted wells after they have been through primary and secondary stages of oil recovery. Today, over 70% of carbon capture projects are used for these enhanced oil recovery processes, resulting in yet more greenhouse gas emissions.
Business as usual
Liberals marketed COP27 as a pivotal event focused on ‘implementation’, yet climate finance mechanisms continue to fail. Deceitful forestry carbon offset credits have already been proven to be worse than worthless and in fact contribute to global warming if used (see FRFI 292). Furthermore there is an ever-increasing pile of unused carbon credits equivalent to the annual emissions of the world’s fifth largest polluter, Japan, in the $2bn unregulated voluntary market. While liberals plead for a more rigorous methodology for carbon credit accounting, touting the need for a ‘Paris-compliant carbon credit’, the direct industrial sources remain untouched.
Africa Climate Summit – failing climate finance
On 4-6 September, the first Africa Climate Summit was held in Nairobi, Kenya. Attended by 30,000 delegates (12,500 of which were from 130 countries around the world), including 18 heads of African states, it culminated in the signing of the Nairobi declaration, calling for a global carbon tax; the fulfilment of the $100bn promised within schemes such as the UN’s Green Climate Fund; and the scaling up of Africa’s own carbon markets initiative. Africa accounts for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but is among the worst affected by the devastation of climate change. Whilst a global carbon tax would ensure the worst polluters were taxed in line with their emissions, this very fact ensures it will never go beyond a proposal.
In 2017-18, Oxfam found that only a fifth of all climate financing went to the Least Developed Countries, and just 3% to Small Island Developing States, both of which face the gravest threat from climate change and possess the fewest resources to cope.
African heads of state understand the question of climate finance as an absolute necessity for African countries to ensure stability within their borders, thwart social unrest, and confront mounting discontent. Nations across the continent face unparalleled hardships amidst the relentless onslaught of climate change. Ecological disturbances inflict a direct blow to agricultural yields, food security, and precious water resources, which serve as lifeblood for millions across Africa. Despite this, researchers have found that Africa receives a mere 12% of the nearly $300bn in annual financing required to effectively manage its challenges. Inadequate financial backing obstructs the capacity to adapt to these adversities, deepening prevailing inequalities and heightening the specter of social and political upheaval.
With its inherent pursuit of profit at all costs, capitalism is driving humanity to the very edge. The multitude of climate finance schemes are the only ‘tools’ in capitalism’s arsenal. The reality is that these ‘tools’ are little more than excuses to allow corporations to maintain business as usual, as the world continues to burn. The relentless drive for profit continues to prioritise short-term gains over long-term sustainability, perpetuating a cycle of nature’s exploitation and degradation.
Jaay Rise
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 296 October/November 2023
