COPs and Climate Change Racism

The United Nations Climate Change Conferences, better known as the COPs, are the pinnacle of hypocrisy. Every year, the "elite" gather via private jets to lecture the rest of the world about cutting carbon emissions. FLOPs are simply annual get togethers for the likes of World Economic Forum (WEF) and the 4 horsemen of the economic apocalypse i.e. the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The insincerity of the UN is laid bare by their Vision 2030 agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goal 4 is quality education. Globally, education is grossly underfunded but there are simple solutions that are inexplicably overlooked. In 2021, the WEF produced a video about using solar power to boost educational funding in the US. In it, a school in Arkansas turned a county's $250k deficit into $1.8m surplus in just 3 years. So if Jamaica and other ex-colonies used the people's money to invest in solar powered schools, education would be better funded. In fact, if all state owned infrastructure was taken off the grid even more money would be available.

The question must be asked, why didn't the WEF make a recommendation to the UN to include state investment in solar powered schools as a prerequisite for goal 4? And for the IMF, World Bank and IDB to lend for these projects and be overseen by the UNDP? Be prudent: instead of indefinitely paying privately owned energy suppliers to power educational institutions and other state infrastructure, redirect that money to servicing fixed-term loan agreements to pay for the investment. It wouldn't require additional taxation, the state would own money making assets, and it would impact most SDGs, including goal 7 which is climate change. It is a no-brainer, but this simple idea was not on the FLOP28 climate change agenda. Why isn't the economic viability and social benefits of renewables used as a reason to transition from fossil fuels, instead of banging on about climate change which is failing miserably? 

Solar in Jamaica   
With the help of the mainstream news media, the falsehood is spread that it is impossible for countries like Jamaica to transition to renewables because the infrastructure is too expensive, when the reality is, it is actually economic madness not to do so. It is fiscally irresponsible, but under the imposed 2013 IMF austerity programme, public spending was annihilated, whilst prudent investment to eliminate the annual US$150m electricity bill for state infrastructure was ignored.  
It is corruption and mismanagement of the public purse. Jamaica is transitioning from oil to natural gas when the parliamentarians have known about the economic viability of renewables for over a decade. In 2012, the then energy minister came off the grid and reported his sagacious investment would pay for itself in 5 years. In 2014 he was at the inauguration of the then biggest solar farm in the Caribbean, at the Grand Palladium Hotel, where the management announced an expected payback of just 4 years for their investment. 

But instead of implementing a program to transition to renewables, in 2015 the minister was advised by the WB to move from Venezuelan oil to US natural gas, a move that was celebrated by the IDB. In a 2022 interview, the he said that a solar investment pays for itself in just 3 years.

The UNDP 
Over 5 years ago, I submitted the idea of solar powered education to the UNDP in Jamaica but corruption is ubiquitous and inescapable. In consecutive years I entered the UN's SDGs competition highlighting how state investment would impact most of the SDGs including poverty, hunger and inequality, and not cost taxpayers payer a cent. My entries were ignored, but one of the 10 finalists was Powerstove, a charcoal cooking pot that converted heat energy to power mobile phones. Powerstove cannot have the global impact of solar powered education, not to mention it uses charcoal which is considered the major cause of deforestation in Africa.

When the UNDP administrator Cassie Flynn took to Twitter to urge people to contact them, quote "...we are open for climate dialogue," I submitted my proposals but her response was to like my tweet. There was no "dialogue." Electricity bills are a reason for school fees and an educational system best described as apartheid. Substandard education is ultimately the driving force behind the perpetuation of poverty, crime and violence in Jamaica. Free education of a decent standard is a human right and this violation is replicated throughout the ex-colonies, but this abuse is overlooked by the UN even though they created the Abidjan Principles which clarify the applicable international human rights legal standards for education. The fact is fossil fuels cannot compete with renewables throughout the tropics, but it is noteworthy that the environmental groups are somehow ignorant about this.

Capitalism 
The UN et al are quiet about state investment because their role is to maintain the status quo. When the IMF was created after the 2nd world war, racist South Africa was invited to be a founding member! Apart from cutting the import bill for fossil fuels, state investment would also result in solar/wind powered manufacturing and food processing. This would further cut the import bill whilst improving food security and also make us competitors.

There would be an increase in our standard of living which would automatically result in a decrease in European standards because we'd buy less of their goods, resulting in job losses, falling share prices etc. Their source of cheap labour would also disappear, resulting in an escalation in the cost of food and services. So these vampires are never going to advocate for state investment because that would be tantamount to signing their own death warrants.

The UN and the western environmental and humanitarian groups are prepared to allow the destruction of the planet whilst they wait for the right economic environment for a capitalist green new deal with the West, and now China owning every solar panel, wind turbine and waste-to-energy plant. The next generation will not forgive us if we allow this to happen.

J Lennon PhD, an advocate for human rights and justice (LetsBuildaBetterJamaica@gmail.com; LetsBuildaBetterJamaica.com)