“Circus” COPS and Civil Society “Clowns”

Today Terry Slavin at reuters.com quoted Sandrine Dixson-Declève, co-president of The Club of Rome, “I fear that COPs are becoming little more than a circus, with the petrostates as the ringmasters and us – civil society, progressive business and financial institutions, heads of state and negotiators from countries wanting climate action – are the clowns. We smile manically as incremental promises and weak pledges are presented as progress.”

Slavin’s article continued, “She and others are calling for fundamental reform of the COP process, something that could well be on the agenda at COP28 next year in Dubai, when the first-ever Global Stocktake of progress on climate action since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015 will be published.”