Our host for the weekly provocative question challenge is Jewish Young Professional, aka JYP.
So what is her provocative question for this week? It’s about climate change. She points out that the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference (also known as the 28th Conference of Parties of UNFCCC or “COP 28”) is underway. Specifically, JYP wants to know…
Do you think COP 28 will result in effective progress towards climate change goals?
Okay, my answer is going to sound very cynical, I admit.
So let’s see. Leaders and dignitaries and their staffs from all around the globe boarded their jet planes, both commercial jets and many privately owned jets, I’m sure. They flew to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in the heart of the biggest oil-producing part of the world, then got in their giant, gas-guzzling limos to get to their hotels, and will, at the end of the conference take their limos back to the airports and board their jets and return to their home countries patting themselves on the back for wining and dining and glad-handing and meeting and discussing climate change for almost two weeks. Maybe there will be a few carefully worded resolutions passed that sound great but can’t be implemented in any meaningful way, much less enforced.
So will this conference result in effective progress toward climate change goals? Sure!
And if you buy that, I’ve got this bridge I want to sell you.