As climate world travels to Dubai, Biden makes a domestic play
Plus, what's next for Frans Timmermans after the Dutch election.
In today’s edition:
— Why Biden’s got better things to do than mingle with 70,000 oil executives in Dubai
— What’s next for former EU climate czar Frans Timmermans after losing Dutch election?
— Environmental startups beginning to raise money again after long bear market
— Siemens Gamesa turnaround plan falls flat with investors
— The world’s biggest iceberg is loose, and heading our way
— More than one million EVs to be sold in U.S. this year for first time
More than 70,000 attendees to the United Nations COP28 climate conference will descend on Dubai this weekend, but President Joe Biden apparently won’t be one of them. Even with King Charles III opening the ceremonies and Pope Francis expected to attend, the conference loses a lot of its luster without Biden or China’s Xi Jinping.
We concur with the Biden team that there are probably better things for the president to do this week than fly halfway across the world to attend a climate conference run by oil interests, for oil interests. In addition to being a bad look, there’s just not much he can do there that he hasn’t already done by example back home.
His meeting with Xi in San Francisco two weeks ago, in which both countries pledged to triple renewable energy capacity, will likely far eclipse any sort of deals to emerge from Dubai. And there is plenty more to worry about, including the Israeli-Hamas hostilities not far away from Dubai in the Middle East.
Spending more time shoring up his legislative climate accomplishments ahead of next year’s election also helps. Holding the first meeting of his supply-chain resilience council, designed to improve energy, medical and agricultural supply chains and fight inflation, as he did on Monday was certainly a right step. Among the climate initiatives in the 30-point plan the White House released was a $275 million new investment in clean energy grants for communities to help offset the loss of jobs in coal towns and communities formerly based on coal.
For COP28 delegates, gearing up for what could be the biggest oil fest of the year at the expense of significant climate measures, the loss of Biden is probably bigger than they think it is. Sure, John Kerry and team will be there. But unless the UAE has some major surprise up its sleeve, this one is already looking like a disaster.
Don’t forget to contact me directly if you have suggestions or ideas at dcallaway@callawayclimateinsights.com.
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What’s next for Frans Timmermans after losing Dutch election?
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