The ‘net zero’ myth

Earlier this month, the world’s leaders got together to small talk about the weather and to big talk about the climate at the 26th edition of the UN’s climate change conference (COP26) in Glasgow. On the sidelines, activists (myself included) campaigned to persuade governments to replace platitudes with attitude, inaction with action.

Nevertheless, the hot air and greenwashing were plentiful, with delegates with ties to fossil fuel companies outnumbering even the largest country delegation. In the pavilion section, greenwashing came from the nuclear industry, representatives of which in banana suits claimed that living near nuclear power stations was as safe as eating a banana, as well as from major coal producers like Australia, and major oil producers such as the Gulf states, each of whom had a gigantic stand.

In the closing plenary, minister after minister urged consensus and collective action for the sake of their children or grandchildren and the future of humanity. However, despite the platitudes, rich countries, from the United States to EU states, showed little appetite to downscale their lifestyles and emerging economic powerhouses, such as China and India, exhibited little willingness to clean up their reliance on coal and other dirty fossil fuels.