THE PETROSTATE PROBLEM
It’s not just corporations seeking to blunt climate ambition. Nations do too.
According to the Carbon Tracker Initiative, 13 nations derive more than 50 per cent of their gross domestic product from fossil fuels. Alongside highly dependent petrostates are other major fossil fuel exporters such as Russia and the US.
Not all petrostates lobby to block climate action. But many do. For example, one of the world’s largest oil producers, Saudi Arabia, has repeatedly worked to undermine the science on climate change at international negotiations.
At the 2023 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates, the Climate Action Network NGO coalition gave its Fossil of the Day award to Saudi Arabia for “repeated blocking across negotiation tracks”.
At these talks, the COP President, Sultan Al Jaber, claimed there was “no science” supporting a fossil fuel phase out to meet Paris Agreement goals, though he later walked this back. Al Jaber also heads up Abu Dhabi’s national oil company.
Over the years, many countries have switched between advancing and derailing negotiations. A US-China deal helped get the historic Paris Agreement over the line in 2015 under President Barack Obama. But under President Donald Trump, the US has withdrawn twice from the Paris Agreement.
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT NEXT?
Many of these issues have not been solved. As the US retreats from international environmental agreements, fossil fuel lobbyists from companies and countries are still showing up in numbers in environmental negotiations to try to get favourable outcomes.
Brazil’s effort to tackle climate misinformation and lobbying begins the work to rebuild integrity and public trust in these negotiations.
Christian Downie is Professor of Political Science at the School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.