COP28: A Circus In The Name Of Climate Talks

From big banks to oil giants, from major MNCs to tainted world leaders - COP28 was taken over by the wrong people in the wrong place.

COP28: A lavish party using taxpayer money

Nadim Siraj

December 13, 2023: The United Nations has wrapped up its favourite annual farce. Officially, it’s called the UN Climate Change Conference. The Gulf kingdom of the United Arab Emirates hosted this year’s climate summit. Organisers decided to hide the extravagant drama behind a predictable, serious-sounding name – COP28.

But the fingerprints of a circus are all over it. Let’s go deep into how the world’s corporate bigshots literally hijacked the COP28 climate conference near Dubai – like they do every year – and turned it into mockery.

What is the UN climate summit all about? It’s a conference where administrators, activists, and weather experts meet and discuss ways to tackle climate change. They are supposed to brainstorm and find ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

But that’s on paper. In practice, the COP28 UN summit this year morphed into a big, bad party involving 84,000 self-important people who hardly represent the masses. Let us peel the layers of this expensive farce one by one.

Watch the video report.

By the end of this report, you’ll be convinced that a small bunch of powerful men in suits have turned this precious event into a circus. And you will be angered at the monumental waste of taxpayer money.

Why Expo City?

Let’s first look at the venue where COP28 took place. It’s hilarious why the UN decided to host it in a completely artificial township near Dubai. The venue is called Expo City Dubai, which is a cheap imitation of a typically flashy Western city. Now, why on Earth should a summit about the climate, nature, and the environment take place at a venue that’s disconnected from nature?

Expo City Dubai was fancifully designed by an American company called HOK a few years back. If you look at the visuals of the place, you will instantly notice that it has an anti-nature and artificial look-and-feel. It’s almost like a cheap copy of a fantasy Hollywood film setting. The fake venue is a misfit for a summit about saving the planet.

That was the first joke about the COP28 circus. Next, why UAE of all places? What had the Gulf kingdom done to deserve it? The country is the sixth biggest crude oil exporter in the world. The UN says fossil fuel is the biggest culprit behind climate change.

Why UAE?

If that is the case, why host an anti-emissions conference bang in the middle of UAE? Isn’t it one of the leading suppliers of fossil fuel? If climate talks are held in oil kingdoms, then the International Criminal Court should relocate to where the Italian mafia operates, and Amnesty International should move to Guantanamo Bay!

The UAE farce is not over. When the UN was planning to host the COP28 summit in the Gulf, people initially thought the event would be headed by someone with a clean and green CV. But who headed the COP28 presidency? Sultan al-Jaber, the head of Abu Dhabi’s national oil company, ADNOC.

So, the head of a major crude oil company, a company that directly contributes to climate change according to the UN itself, headed the UN-sponsored climate talks. Isn’t that a joke?

In the last 10 years, UAE dished out millions of dollars to advisory firms such as Gulstan of London and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld of the US, and also to high-profile think tanks. Why? To polish its image as a climate-friendly nation. No other UN climate summit host nation has invested so much money on image makeover than the Emirati elites did.

By the way, don’t forget that the Gulf nation happily allows numerous construction companies to treat South Asian labourers – especially those from Bangladesh – like pests. The UN conveniently forgot it during the COP28 party.  

Why not online?

This brings us to a bigger question: why did the UN host the COP28 event physically? Why not simply host it online? The whole subject is all about lowering emissions and cutting down on transport, right? Then why not set an example by hosting it as webinars? There would be no high-cost travel, and no CO2 emissions. Many complex jobs are nowadays done online. Even signatures for deals, pledges, and declarations could be done digitally; we all do it often.

Instead, 84,000 self-important people from around the world were extremely worried about emissions. So, to discuss the problem, they travelled by plane and by car all the way to Dubai to attend COP28. Imagine the huge carbon footprint they themselves left behind. And we’re talking about people campaigning against emissions. It’s an epic joke.

The reality is, if the UN hosted the tamasha online, it would have defeated the whole purpose. What’s that purpose? To have a grand paid-vacation in the desert oasis, with lavish arrangements – all paid for by taxpayer money. It was too tempting to avoid a physical party.

Unwelcome speakers

Look at the people who took the long flight to Dubai just to deliver non-technical lectures at COP28. One of them was Hillary Clinton. Why should Hillary Clinton attend the climate summit? She’s not a weather expert. She’s not an energy expert, either.

She’s a warmongering diplomat who said on TV that she enjoyed the unlawful killing of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Why did the UN allow a warmonger to lecture the world on conserving energy? Her presence at COP28 was an insult to taxpayers around the world.

Then there’s Rishi Sunak. His activities at COP28 were a joke bigger than the summit itself. Sunak spent more time travelling to and from Dubai than he did at the summit itself. He spent 14 hours flying from London to Dubai and back, and he spared only 11 hours at the summit. Only a climate change violator would do that, isn’t it?

A very British farce

We’re not done with Sunak yet. Three people from the rainy island of Britain attended the COP28 summit: the British PM, Charles (who considers himself ‘King’), and the UK’s foreign secretary David Cameron. Guess what? All three travelled from London to Dubai on separate flights.

They could have easily travelled together specifically to send a message to the public about cutting emissions. It’s not a huge sacrifice to make. A plane won’t get crammed if three people board it! But fact is stranger than fiction. One aircraft proved to be too small for all three of them. So, they took separate flights to COP28. Remember, they were travelling to lecture the world about cutting CO2 emissions.

At the summit, Charles delivered a typically Churchillian speech about doomsday dawning upon us due to the effects of climate change. Well, could someone please remind him that large parts of the world had witnessed doomsday long back, thanks to the shenanigans of the Buckingham family?

Gaza war escapists

Here’s another farce at COP28 – a cruel one. A horrific war has been raging in Gaza for quite some time now. Body-bags are piling up, and there’s no peace in sight. Yet, the presidents of the two warring sides – Palestinian Authority and Israel – were not there for a good while.

Instead, they were busy attending the climate party in UAE. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, and Isaac Herzog, Israeli President, were more engrossed in discussing weather patterns under the beautiful Dubai night sky than stopping the bloody war at home. What was the press doing about all that? Well, they were waiting for press releases to showcase their gold-standard journalism.

The talented Mr. Bill Gates also didn’t miss the party. How could he miss this one? He went there to openly sign a major business deal. TerraPower, a nuclear reactor company started by Gates, signed up with ENEC, the state-owned nuclear company of UAE. The business plan is to build advanced nuclear reactors in the oil country and elsewhere.

Bill Gates at COP28

For people around the world, COP28 was a summit where world leaders were supposed to chalk out urgent climate action. But Gates landed there with other plans: how to help his nuclear company cut business deals.

Of course, he didn’t spare the opportunity to deliver a trademark lecture. It was hilarious, as usual. He told the audience there that farming has been causing CO2 emissions, and therefore, something needed to be done to farming, at once. It was an ominous warning from a man known to back various types of unnatural and controversial experimentation.

Gates also said during his monologue that climate change would give the public more and more infectious diseases. Yes, Mr. Bill Gates actually made that incredible statement.

Why host IMF, World Bank?

Who else was there at Expo City Dubai? The heads of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank. These are two financial octopuses that help powerful Western countries control economically weak nations. Basically, they are the two biggest offices of ‘economic hitmen’.

Our question is: why should the IMF and the World Bank be allowed or welcomed to attend the UN climate summit? What have they got to do with nature? Through their presence at COP28, the two super-banks made it amply clear that they sought to keep a hawk eye and influence key decisions.

Who else was there? Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who achieved rockstar status since the coronavirus fearmongering began in early 2020. Tedros heads the WHO (World Health Organisation).

Now, we all know that the WHO receives funding from places such as Seattle-based BMGF (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Geneva-based GAVI Vaccine Alliance, New York-based Rockefeller Foundation, and Illinois-based Rotary Club. So, it’s a body that is answerable to not just donor governments, but to corporate players as well.

In that context, can you really trust the WHO chief to brainstorm independently at the climate talks?

Why host MNCs, big banks?

Some of the biggest banks in West Asia and around the world were also part of the COP28 summit. Bank of America, HSBC, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, and a few others – what were they doing at the UN climate talks?

Big banks are owned by powerful banking families, as we all know. The point is, why should they participate in a summit about the future of nature and people? Would they do a fair job? Won’t they have a bias towards their business interests with what they pitch at the climate talks?

Also, look at the long line-up of MNCs and big brands that were part of the show – Microsoft, Huawei, BMW, Ernst & Young, IBM, Siemens, Power Construction Corporation of China, SAP, Schneider Electric, Financial Times, and numerous universities from West Asia and around the world. These are big businesses. They specialise in conducting big business. Do you really think they offered genuinely humanitarian tips at the summit? It’s wishful thinking.

Hijacked by Big Oil

Also, a record 2,456 representatives from the fossil-fuel industry attended the COP28 party. The oil bosses literally hijacked the show; it was their baby. The representatives of the biggest oil and gas companies were bang in the middle of the action.

Companies such as TotalEnergies, ENI, BP, EDF, and ExxonMobil, and a few others were formally associated with the UN event. Think about it, the UN welcomed Big Oil companies to brainstorm about climate action – that’s yet another farce.

Climate change and the fossil fuel industry are poles apart. But at COP28, climate alarmists and major emitters were having a lovely ball dance. It wasn’t a surprise at all when COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber said at the event’s opening that fossil fuels shouldn’t be and can’t be phased out. The mask came off with that single remark.

An even more absurd thing about climate talks was that they happened under the watchful eyes of the UN. Can somebody tell us which crisis the United Nations has solved since it was created after World War 2? The answer is: nothing.

UN’s own track record

Just count the number of wars and invasions the UN has allowed to happen: Vietnam, Somalia, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine, Crimea, Ukraine… The list is longer.

What else has the UN failed to handle? Migration, xenophobia, terror attacks, mystery diseases, toxic corporate jobs, modern slavery, unprecedented concentration of wealth in the hands of a few families owning the biggest MNCs, G7 countries sucking money out of the poorest 100 countries.

Where’s the UN while these things are happening? They only issue beautiful press releases written in refined language. This is the track record of the UN. Can we really trust them to find ways to save the planet? No way. They don’t have the CV for it.

You must be wondering, so what, if the climate summit was a circus? What’s the problem? After all, the UN and some big companies were covering the budget. Therefore, why bother? Well, that’s an optical illusion. A grand lie.

Footing the bill

The expensive party was happening at the expense of the public. The taxpayer was paying for the buffet, the travel, and the seven-star arrangements at Expo City Dubai. How’s that possible? Let me explain it to you in a simplified manner.

How does the UN get its money? As contributions from various governments. How do those governments collect that money? As direct and indirect taxes from the public. So, taxpayers around the world are essentially funding the UN. That includes taxpayers from the poorest parts of the world, such as Africa, South Asia, and parts of South America and Southeast Asia.

The UN also gets donations from corporate-style NGOs such as Gates Foundation. Whose money is that? It is money that is indirectly mopped up from the public by corporate players through various business activities. So, in this case, too, it’s the public who are funding the UN.

So, the United Nations essentially uses money collected from the masses around the world to hold high-end summits such as COP28.

We’re not talking about a couple of hundred dollars for a late-night celebration. We’re talking about billions of dollars changing hands. Someone powerful was pledging millions and billions of taxpayer money to someone powerful for some arbitrary cause during those few days in the desert nation.

Whose billions?

Have a look at some of the numbers. Around $84 billion were committed at the summit for various causes. The money will go into projects with stylised and fancy names, such as ‘loss and damage’, ‘inclusion’, ‘green climate fund’, ‘adaptation fund’, ‘special climate change fund’, ‘lives and livelihoods’, and so on.

The maximum amount has been allotted for something called ‘climate finance’ fund, amounting to about $62 billion. We really don’t know how much of that money will actually reach the poor, and how much will end up in the pockets of MNCs and NGOs posing as taking climate action.

Whose money was tossed around in Dubai? It’s your hard-earned money.

Ideally, who should hold these climate talks? Authentic activists and independent scientists, right? Basically, people with merit, knowledge, and knowhow about climate change and climate action. They are the ones who should decide what should be done with the billions of dollars of taxpayer money. Their actions would be relatively honest and meaningful.

Farcical website

Instead, what did we see? Giant, corporate bodies and powerful international institutions were running the COP28 show, juggling with our money in the name of climate discussions. If you still have doubts that the Dubai dystopia was a circus, just visit the official website of COP28. You’ll start laughing.

The website has a high-carbon version and a low-carbon version. What’s that? If you visit the website’s high-carbon version, then they claim it will emit more CO2 into the air. And if you click on the low-carbon version, the images on the website will disappear. Therefore, they say it will emit less CO2!

Have you heard of something more ridiculous than this? Even kids will laugh at it.

The annual UN climate summit has become a big show where the wrong people are getting to decide our future. People who are not from among us. People primarily from the ivory tower of power, and people who diligently work for the global elites, not for the masses.

You can trust the weather. You can trust the climate. You can trust the science. But you just can’t trust these people and their dystopian summits.

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