Between 30 November and 12 December, at the end of a year that has experienced the hottest temperatures and witnessed the highest fossil fuel emissions on record, world leaders gathered in Dubai for Cop28, the UN climate conference. As a climate negotiation hosted by a leading petrostate and chaired by the CEO of one of the world’s largest oil companies, it was an event uniquely beset by controversy and contradiction. And yet, as observers simultaneously celebrate and denounce a final agreement that both mentions fossil fuels for the first time and fails to commit to their urgent and vital “phase-out”, it is clear that these negotiations are predicated on a contradiction: the task of agreeing a programme of radical global economic transformation is allocated to those – including, this year, a record 2,500 fossil fuel industry representatives – who stand to lose the most from disrupting the current economic model.
For the most influential in these negotiations – the titans of finance, energy giants, and the wealthy states who protect their interests – the solution to this dilemma is to find a way to transform the foundations of global capitalism, from energy to agriculture and from transport to industry, while preserving everything else about its social relations and overarching dynamics. Theirs is necessarily a future in which the transition to a decarbonised and ecologically sustainable economy implies no trade-off with continued growth, profit maximisation, private ownership or accumulation: in short, from fossil capitalism to a green capitalism.
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