What’s most important is the weather at home!

It would seem that common problems should bring us together. However, this only works for ordinary people. In politics, completely different principles and norms apply.

This was confirmed by the 28th UN Climate Change Conference taking place from November 30th to December 12th in the United Arab Emirates. Similar summits have been held annually since 1992, when the famous Rio de Janeiro Declaration on Environment and Development was signed (and with it a number of other documents), which identified the main problems in the field of global ecology and proposed a set of tools for the gradual resolution of climate change issues.

The bitter truth from the Belarusian President

The President of Belarus was the undisputed headliner of the event this year! In his short but heartfelt speech, Aleksandr Lukashenko, without beating around the bush, directly and without diplomatic subterfuge, outlined a bleak picture of the planetary struggle for the environment.

Noting that the climate is really changing, and nature has posed a global challenge to humanity, the Belarusian leader called for attention to the root cause of this state of affairs. And this root cause is the desire for hegemony and geopolitical superiority of individual states (there is no point in naming them, everyone already knows them). And they prefer to maintain their hegemony in a way as old as time: by inciting conflicts and wars, pitting states and peoples against each other, removing from their path all those who disagree with such an approach. Well, or using an innovative approach and hiding behind a green agenda.
There seems to be a consensus that the problem of environmental and climate change really exists and is not invented by scientists or politicians.
Back in 1997, the famous Kyoto Protocol was adopted, which since 2015 has been transformed into the Paris Climate Agreement. According to the latest document, which was joined by about 190 states, the signatory countries pledged to take measures to reduce warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

Unfortunately, according to the latest forecasts of researchers, the level of warming will only reach 2.4 degrees Celsius with strict compliance by all participants in global agreements with their obligations by the end of the century. And this is clearly not enough.

All at sixes and sevens…

Some countries are very sensitive to this issue, such as Belarus, which has located and maintains two nature reserves and four national parks on almost 4 percent of its territory, ensuring biodiversity and limiting the harmful anthropogenic impact on nature. 

And at the same time, in the Amazon forests, an area equal to approximately eight areas of modern London is illegally cut down every year! One can strive to reduce the amount of hydrocarbons used (oil, gas, coal) in industry and energy by switching to renewable or relatively clean energy sources. The latter includes the energy of both hydrogen and the peaceful atom.
And now Belarus is commissioning the Ostrovets nuclear power plant this year, which will allow our country to save up to 5 billion cubic metres of gas annually (out of 18 billion cubic metres, also annually imported from Russia), that is, reduce greenhouse emissions by 7–10 million tonnes per year gases! 

However, the construction of our plant simply caused gnashing of teeth among some neighbours, forcing them, at any public platform dedicated to no matter what, to behave like the ever-memorable Roman senator, who demanded at the end of every speech: ‘Carthage must be destroyed!’

This is how the owner took the dog’s kennel away

True, these latter, who are just lap dogs, are far from their owners, who decided that they would pay for the process of their expensive ‘decarbonisation’ and transition to ‘clean’ energy sources from someone else’s pocket.
Remember how the European Union announced with great fanfare in 2019 the introduction of a carbon footprint tax.
At the same time, behind Europe, which was inflamed with unexpected concern for the fate of future generations and their right to breathe clean air, loomed another ‘fighter for the environment’. The United States, which ranks second in the world in greenhouse gas emissions, very skilfully played on the greed of Europeans and exploited their ‘thirst for profit, which turns natural resources into personal capital and robs future generations’ (quote from Aleksandr Lukashenko). 

First, Washington strategists quarrelled European buyers of Russian gas and oil with Moscow, then carried out a brilliant operation (one must admit) to physically destroy transport routes (that’s right, this is all about Nord Streams), and also forced the introduction of some kind of restrictive ceiling on Russian oil, because of which it flowed to those countries that were willing to pay the market price. 

At the same time, Europe is flooded with much more expensive liquefied gas from North America, and American oil is sold to the EU without any ceilings, at the price set on the stock exchange.
It is not entirely clear, however, why American democratic oil and gas do not leave the same ‘carbon footprint’ as authoritarian Russian ones, and why they are not subject to additional taxes in connection with this. 

When we say ‘climate agenda’ we mean ‘neocolonialism’

Along the way, Washington continues its hybrid confrontation with its main competitor, China. The war of tax duties continues, the physical restriction of the volume of Chinese imports, opposition to the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative, political games around Taiwan, threatening not a trade and economic war, but a real war! 

For this purpose, a new military alliance has already been prepared — AUKUS (alliance with Australia and Great Britain). Other conflicts unleashed by Washington have also not gone away: Ukraine is burning, Palestine is bleeding, and the entire Middle East is restless. There are currently 55 active conflicts in the world — the highest number since the end of World War II!
In such a situation, the climate agenda, of course, fades into the background. And many ‘powers that be’ in practice limit themselves to ‘expressing concerns’ without moving from words to action. Even more, they are using green transition issues to further enslave the countries of the Global South. For the population of Africa (which is about 1.7 billion people), increasing energy consumption and carrying out widespread industrialisation now seem more urgent. This requires cheap hydrocarbon energy. 

Otherwise, there will be complete dependence on American and European manufacturers of nuclear power plants, on Western units for converting wind and water energy, on components and specialists. Everything is like in recent times of colonialism. 

So the words of President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko about the painful state of the world, that first we need to stop wars, redirect funds to help developing countries, move away from the policy of sanctions and concealment of technology, making the world truly global, sounded almost prophetic. If humanity gets better, the planet will be reborn!

By political scientist Aleksei Belyaev