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Oil and gas avoided censure in Glasgow for the 26th time. Let’s not make it 27
(Climate Home News, 16 Nov 2021) The Glasgow Climate Pact struck on Saturday named and shamed coal, in a symbolic first for the UN climate talks. Big coal producers such as India and China resisted but they couldn’t escape the pressure inside (and outside, especially from youth climate strikers).
As Cop26 president the UK was obsessed with getting something on coal at the summit. They were probably hoping it would distract from anyone asking awkward questions about oil and gas, such as why the UK government is legally committed to extracting every last “economic” drop out of the North Sea.
It wasn’t just the UK that was keen to avoid the topic. None of the G20 signed up to join the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance last week, apart from France which produces very little of the stuff and will continue to import.
So, we have to ask why, after 26 UN climate summits have oil and gas, which between them are responsible for more CO2 emissions than coal, been virtually ignored?
To begin to answer we need to look beyond a Saturday evening in Glasgow in November to what’s going on in the capital cities of G20 countries.
One factor is that while G20 governments increasingly support green technologies, lobbyists have successfully persuaded them to provide:
- $5.9 trillion in fossil fuel subsidies in 2020 (“efficient” or otherwise)
- $300 billion since the Covid-19 pandemic began to expand extraction
- Support for options that will extend the use of oil, gas and coal for decades, like hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and petrochemicals.
Climate Home News, 16 Nov 2021: Oil and gas avoided censure in Glasgow for the 26th time. Let’s not make it 27
