It’s difficult not to suspect the world is suffering from COP-fatigue, or at least that large proportion of the world that never attends a COP event. This year nonattendees include Greta Thunberg and, given that it’s taking place in no-nonsense Egypt, it’s possible that the nonattendees might include thousands of activists.
Thunberg reckons the events are worse than pointless as they allow governments and big business to indulge in “greenwashing, lying and cheating”. As it happens, COP27 also provided Coca-Cola with a great sponsorship opportunity.
Supporters of the Conference of the Parties rightly counter that it’s the only multilateral forum where representatives from 200 countries can speak as equals on climate change. The downside is that decisions have to be taken unanimously and end up looking like the lowest common denominator. Even then there’s little evidence of any action taken and commitments made. The Paris climate agreement, signed in 2015, pledged to limit temperature increases to 1.5°C. We’re on track for an increase of about 2.5°C by the end of the century.
Of course, it might be even grimmer were it not for the annual COP fête. But it’s difficult to see how any progress can be made while individuals, companies and governments are determined to measure progress in terms of consumption-based economic growth. After a few days at COP, companies and countries are back to scrambling over each other to score the highest rates of growth; inevitably the environment is thrown under the consumption bus.
This dark reality is probably why the annual COP events tend to be such grim affairs; countries and companies know they have to make commitments and also know most of those commitments are likely to be ignored. This is the “greenwashing, lying and cheating” that angers Thunberg.
Perhaps all that’s needed to counter the fatigue is an awards ceremony. And perhaps Thunberg could be persuaded to return to hand over the Greg Taylor award. That’s not Greg Taylor the Scottish footballer, it’s Greg Taylor the 73-year-old Australian who last year announced he will quit drinking by 2050. Taylor said it was important not to rush the switch to nonalcoholic beverages. “It’s not realistic to transition to zero alcohol overnight. This requires a steady, phased approach where nothing changes for at least two decades.” To assist with the transition, Taylor has bought a second beer fridge, which he describes as part of the “capture and storage” method. He plans to drink as normal until 2049 when he will reduce consumption. Good luck Greg.
Having spent a sad amount of time trawling through Sasol’s suite of annual reports, it’s evident to me this should be the Global South’s nomination for the inaugural Greg Taylor COP award.
Initially I was pretty sure Sasol was just a year or two away from reaching its net zero ambition. It was using so many roadmaps it seemed impossible not to be close to its destination. Scope 1 and 2 emission reduction targets “are supported by roadmaps detailing the methodologies we propose to employ to achieve our targets,” says Sasol, sounding so very like Mr Taylor. “We are also developing a scope 3 category 11 emission-reduction roadmap to support our 2030 target.”
And there’s lots of talk about setting up partnerships with various unmentioned entities to assist Sasol on these roadmapped journeys.
After more hours of intense reading, I began to suspect something was amiss. There was an absence of, well, hard facts. In Mr Taylor’s life it would be pints of beer not drunk.
It dawned on me: Sasol is still at the roadmap-making phase of its grand transition plan to reach net zero by 2050. And like Mr Taylor it might be taking the imperceptibly slow, steady, phased approach until 2049 and then going hell-for-leather. Of course, also like Mr Taylor, by that stage Sasol might be dead.
COP awards aside, it is difficult to understand why a company like Sasol, which talks an awful lot about reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency, included climate control metrics in its executive performance targets only this year. One reason could be that it is able to persuade the South African government to give it whatever extensions it requests to legislated deadlines to clean up its act. So why bother if you don’t really have to?
Runner-up nominees for the inaugural Greg Taylor award must include Sasol’s enabling institutional shareholders led by the Government Employees Pension Fund, Ninety One, Prudential and Allan Gray, who we all thought were investing for the long term.
Now we’ve just got to persuade Greta.
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