Energy Zero: COP27 Attendees

December 20, 2022

 It’s the most wonderful time of the year again. Time to gather with friends and family and enjoy the glow of holiday lights that are powered by American fossil fuels and the thousands of energy workers who work both day and night to supply our homes, businesses, and vehicles with energy. Here at Power The Future, we like to celebrate the holidays and the new year by looking back at the energy year that was. For the next 12 days, we will highlight six energy heroes and six energy zeros of 2022. These are individuals (or groups) who should be celebrated or ridiculed for the role they played in energy production, policy, and promotion.

We will start our twelve days with a zero and there are few bigger to highlight than the organizers and attendees of COP27 in Egypt. This two-week climate conference was supposedly focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and vilifying fossil fuels, however, seemingly all the delegates flew a private jet to attend. This wasn’t unique to this COP conference. 

Business Insider reported, “According to reports, some 400 private jets have graced the country’s airports since November 4, despite EGYPTAIR offering special flights for all delegates to attend the event. While some sources allege lower numbers, this remains a recurring problem. Previous summits have continued to rack an increasing carbon footprint, with COP26 recording a tragic 1,02,500 tons of CO2 equivalent in 2021 — four times higher than the one before it.” 

The hypocrisy here is staggering. It’s a great example of these climate COP27 attendees saying, “do as I say, but not as I do.” In today’s day and age, this conference could have been a zoom call. It seems their greenhouse gas emission reduction goals don’t apply when it means they wouldn’t get to stay at a luxury hotel for two weeks on the Nile. 

For their hypocrisy, the attendees of COP27 are a PTF Energy Zero of 2022.