UN Climate Chief Would Like to See Smaller COPs in the Future

In 2023, some 84,000 souls participated in the COP28 climate conference in Dubai. People from all over the planet boarded carbon-spewing jets, flying thousands of miles to an out-of-the-way dot on the global map to discuss just how they might strong-arm the nations of the world into abandoning fossil fuels in exchange for far less reliable forms of energy such as wind and solar.

Simon Stiell, the Grenadian politician who is currently serving as the UN’s executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), would like to see the number of attendees at future COPs drop to more manageable levels. Stiell made the remarks at a recent speech in London.

The London event was doubly remarkable, as Stiell issued yet another UN-endorsed deadline to seriously address so-called climate change. The title of Stiell’s speech was “Two years to save the world.”

“We still have a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble, with a new generation of national climate plans. But we need these stronger plans, now,” Stiell stressed.

“When I say we have two years to save the world, it begs the question — who exactly has two years to save the world?” Stiell asked. “The answer is every person on this planet.”

Presumably, that includes the attendees of the COP conferences. Stiell would like to see far fewer attend such conferences in the future.

“Size does not necessarily translate to the quality of outcomes,” he said. “Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.”

COP29 will be held in Baku, the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan. Organizers are currently expecting a crowd of approximately 40,000 to descend on the Caspian Sea port city next November.

This current age of massive attendance at COP events is fairly recent, with close to 40,000 attending COP26 in Glasgow and approximately 50,000 attending COP27 at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.

That 40,000-50,0000 participants is a more comfortable attendance for Stiell, because he knows exactly how this appears to the public he would like to deprive of fossil fuels. “At every COP, we get the reports — how many private planes [and] the CO2 footprint for hosting those COPs,” the UN climate chief said.

He added, “Taking a very pragmatic view, we need the right people around the table in order for this process to work and there will be a cost to that. How you ensure that those that are present are the ones necessary to contribute positively to the process is also important.”

One would think that if there are only two years left to save the world from climate disaster, the UN’s climate chief would take the lead on this pressing issue. For instance, he could call for an end to all unnecessary air travel, such as attending useless climate conferences at out-of-the-way locations. Wouldn’t that be “pragmatic?”

COP29 is scheduled for Baku in Azerbaijan, while COP30 is set for Belém in northern Brazil, near the Amazon rainforest.