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Cop 27

This document discusses several issues related to climate change conferences and policies. It summarizes that previous climate conferences have not achieved much results despite their high costs. It also discusses how IMF policies have weakened Pakistan's economy and led the country to rely on debt to maintain stability. One example provided is an 1994 energy policy that incentivized power producers to maximize output at the expense of taxpayers, leading Pakistan to take on more debt to subsidize these companies. The document questions who climate conferences actually represent and argues that the system of capitalism is ultimately responsible for the climate crisis.

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Bilal Malik
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27 views2 pages

Cop 27

This document discusses several issues related to climate change conferences and policies. It summarizes that previous climate conferences have not achieved much results despite their high costs. It also discusses how IMF policies have weakened Pakistan's economy and led the country to rely on debt to maintain stability. One example provided is an 1994 energy policy that incentivized power producers to maximize output at the expense of taxpayers, leading Pakistan to take on more debt to subsidize these companies. The document questions who climate conferences actually represent and argues that the system of capitalism is ultimately responsible for the climate crisis.

Uploaded by

Bilal Malik
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Twenty-seven iterations of the ‘Conference of the Parties’ — and

counting. This is apparently one of the highest profile gatherings of


world leaders on the curtailment of carbon emissions and climate
change more generally. Never mind the aggregate cost of these
events (what else can they reasonably be called?) over the years:
what is there to show for all of it?
As international financial institutions and multilateral donor agencies position
themselves once more to advance debt arrangements to Pakistan in the name
of ‘post-floods recovery and rehabilitation’, it is important to understand the
backdrop of the country’s relationship with these predatory organisations.
Approximately 2/5ths of the fiscal budget for 2023 is scheduled to be directed
towards debt servicing due, in large part, to the neoliberal policy prescriptions
of the IMF which have functioned to weaken the fundamental structure of the
economy and compel subsequent governments to remain in firefighting mode
to merely maintain macroeconomic stability.
One example of this is the 1994 Energy Policy which guaranteed 15-18%
returns to international power producers based on kilowatts produced,
incentivising them to maximise output at the expense of the Pakistani
taxpayer. This led to overcapacity, prompting the government to take on loans
to continue subsidising these multinational corporations. IPPs also led the
transition away from hydro — which was Pakistan’s primary energy source up
until that point — to oil and gas, significantly more harmful to the
environment and fostering higher dependencies on oil/gas producers around
the globe. Today, over 1/4th of Pakistan’s import bill is for fuel — a situation
that favours, above all, the ginormous global fossil fuel industry.
A cursory glance across the set of primary organisations sponsoring the event
tells a revealing tale. The irony of companies such as Coca-Cola, involved in
the production of around 120 billion oil-based plastic bottles annually, offers a
glimpse into the level of seriousness these initiatives entail. In 2020, Coca-
Cola was named the world’s worst plastic polluter for the third year in a row —
and yet, here are its top executives waxing lyrical about how to save the
environment. Even attendees to the event used private jets to fly into Egypt.
This form of travel is one of the most harmful to the environment, emitting 2.5
kg carbon dioxide for every litre of aviation fuel burned. A flight from
Amsterdam to Sharm el-Sheikh, for instance, would emit a whopping 45.3
tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, before its passengers got off to lecture the
globe about climate ‘mitigation’, ‘resilience’, and ‘adaptation’.
In the Global South’s case, individuals in attendance at the COP-27 do not
even necessarily represent the interests of the ordinary citizenry. Democracy
has always been a pipe dream in Pakistan whereby ruling elites have always
responded to the needs and desires of specific power centres — including the
security apparatus, big landlords, industrial bigwigs, international financial
institutions, etc — rather than the working masses, the worst affected by
global warming and climate catastrophes. This is due to the fact that deeply
entrenched colonial structures of administration, which were designed for
purposes of pure extraction, have never been reformed.
Even in the ‘developed’ world, government representatives have come to be
beholden the interests of big multinational corporations in the tech, fossil fuel,
big pharma and ‘philanthropic’ industries via their respective lobbies. What
purpose, exactly, is it that they serve through their theatrical performances at
COP-27?
The bottom line is that the system of Capitalism is ultimately responsible for
the climate crisis. Without a radical overhaul of this oppressive, exploitative
and outdated modality, there is little hope of preserving the environmental
commons. Addressing symptoms rather than the underlying illness will always
be an exercise in futility. Time is ticking and large scale reparations via debt
waivers are due for unfettered industrialisation, colonial adventures and
imperialism through international financial institutions: primarily of the
West. Who will act first?
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2022.

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