Billionaires, women entrepreneurs and the climate trade-offs left unsaid: An inside view from COP28

By Luke Heilbuth , CEO BWD Strategic

Arriving at COP28, it’s clear that no expense has been spared. The sands that once enveloped the outer reaches of Dubai have been transformed into neat hedgerows offset by a mad jumble of Gaudíesque buildings. In the middle of the Green Zone sits a spectacular modernist dome that calls on the architectural legacy of Islam.?

Despite the winter, it’s hot walking the avenues. Passenger buggies are in short supply and most of us are forced to schlep on foot, battling the dreadful glare in inappropriately formal clothing. All around me delegates shuffle along to their next far-flung event, foreheads basted in a thin patina of sweat.

The invitation-only CEO Forum is mercifully self-contained; a venue within a venue for 500 business, political and philanthropy leaders. The aim is a word salad of corporatese: “to facilitate co-creation, collaboration, and acceleration to unlock innovative climate and nature solutions and drive impactful results at a global scale”.

My new friend on arrival, a Zimbabwean-Australian named Patience, thinks the Emirati Government researched our sustainability-minded profiles on LinkedIn. We laugh at our good fortune to be here and pledge to make the most it.

The women and men in attendance look unremarkable, but each introduction reveals another scarcely believable story of success. An Indian man says hello over coffee. I soon realise I’m speaking with one of the planet’s wind farm pioneers, whose company Suzlon has since spread throughout the world.

Then I’m listening to the CEO of ZeroAvia , who is solving aviation emissions through green hydrogen-fuelled planes. He casually mentions the recent backing of Gates and Bezos; Musk turned him down after meeting, given his penchant for battery solutions.

A friendly Canadian explains how his company, East African Power , makes power purchasing agreements directly with African leaders, transforming lives by providing affordable electricity, often for the first time.

Drawing on the Arabic I learned as a young diplomat, I sit next to a lone Emirati to ask him what he thinks of it all. Abdalla works directly for COP President Sultan Al Jaber. He’s all smiles as he explains the pride Emiratis feel at being at the centre of global attention.

Wealth, power and innovation?

I make my way into the main theatre, where Bear Grylls is emceeing. When the teleprompter malfunctions, so does Bear, falling silent mid-sentence. He has the grace to laugh at himself before rolling out more introductions for some of the world’s famous people.

In a panel session, Bill Gates repeats what he’s argued in his book How to avoid a climate disaster; philanthropic capital is critical to seeding the moon-shot technologies required to solve the climate and nature crises. He tells the wealthy in the room to get in touch if they want some advice on giving.

Ray Dalio’s here too, seemingly unaffected by his reputational trashing in the media. He talks of a passion for deep sea exploration and the importance of preserving our long-neglected oceans. We have the money and the brilliance to solve climate change, he says. The missing ingredient is how we are with each other.

Champion climate talker John Kerry owns the stage after lunch, admitting that even he’s tired of the platitudes. He rails against coal and the toxicity of the fossil fuel lobby, calling on the room to put our businesses on the line for the sake of the transition.?

I’ve always been sceptical of COP. All the expense, talking and air miles. Incredibly, the carbon intensity of the global energy system fell faster in the 30 years before the first major UN climate conference (Kyoto) than after it . Since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997, both total and per capita emissions have risen faster than in the period prior. More than half of all emissions burned by humans have occurred after first airing of Seinfeld. But it’s hard not to get swept up in the good intentions. I just about believe the idea that all this wealth and innovation is now coalescing to begin the task of fixing the world.

Twiggy Forrest comes to the stage. He tells the audience to ask their leaders a simple question: When you are going to stop burning fossil fuels? After humblebragging of Fortescue’s success, he wonders when the Australian Government will stop offering more than $10 billion in fossil fuel subsidies. The room is attentive and approving as he rolls on; I overhear an Indian delegate behind me ask who this man is.?

As the afternoon extends, Twiggy is back, this time as a judge. He and two others are up there to put a series of young, award-winning sustainability entrepreneurs through their paces. The three standouts are all young women.

Sarah Lamaison, co-founder of Dioxcycle is using electrolysis to convert CO2 into a wide range of commodities such as carbon monoxide, ethylene, and ethanol. The aim is to recycle over 600 megatonnes of carbon dioxide each year while producing a sustainable alternative to fossil-fuel derived commodities like plastics.

Nidhi Pant, co-founder of S4S Technologies , is helping rural Indian women become micro-entrepreneurs by repurposing imperfect crops into new products using solar-powered food dehydration systems. And Nicole Mao, co-founder of Tiger New Energy , is providing affordable lithium-ion batteries-as-a-service to electrify Bangladesh’s huge network of two and three-wheelers.

Trade-offs

The evening has fallen when I step out into the relieving night air. Ahead, the Saudi Pavilion glitters like an adult Disneyland. Inside it’s all sound and light, with wall-to-wall AV screens showing deserts repopulated with oryx and ibex. A 360-degree oval immersion showcases the Saudi highlands geo-engineered with palms among green grasses.

The whole experience, like COP itself, is designed to awe and overwhelm; a green-techno microcosm of what the region’s authoritarian, often visionary leaders hope to compel into reality with their endless supply of petrodollars and even larger imaginations.

Heading back to my hotel, the metro is packed with South Asian workers out with friends. It’s Emirati National Day and Dubai is bumping. The long ride gives me time to think. Have I been swept up by the excitement of attendance? Or is real change finally here?

The well-trammelled cliche is that climate talks are nothing more than an endless run of platitudes. The time to act is now. There is no planet B. If only the world just stopped talking and acted, we’d be ok. The sentiment is right. But it inadvertently ignores the even harder conversation around the trade-offs required to advance progress.

For example, Chinese companies produce the world’s cheapest solar panels but some use forced labour to do so. Is it justified for a buyer, who won’t otherwise be able to upgrade to solar for cost reasons, to purchase an unethical product? What matters more? Reducing emissions or preventing human cruelty?

What about rich nations offering financial aid to the Global South? Developing countries did not cause climate change but suffer its worst effects. Do we have a moral imperative to aid them, as per the ‘loss and damage’ fund announced during the last COP? I believe we do. But the harder question is how we prevent hard-won tax dollars from ending up in the personal bank accounts of reprehensible ministers and generals.

Finally, what of the fossil fuel giants and global consultancies slinging credibility for hire? They will benefit the most from the trillions in spending required to transition. Does it matter that those who created the problem will benefit most from solving it? Or does the end justify the means?

Like all things in climate change, there are no easy answers. But we must find them all the same. To borrow from what Weber once said of politics, climate action is “a strong and slow boring of hard boards … Man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible.”