Article by Eric Worrell
“…It can be said that self-destruction has been integrated into the “process” from the beginning. …”
Climate conferences are dying. How to save the world now?
This year’s United Nations climate change summit exposed its contradictions and failures and stoked existential angst.
go through Karl Mathieson
Located in Baku, Azerbaijan…
The atmosphere on the plane was grim, and more than one person on board must have been wondering: Are these UN climate summits doomed to fail?
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at the beginning
It can be said that self-destruction is built into the “process” from the beginning.
In 1991, when countries were establishing modern climate diplomacy, Saudi Arabian negotiators insisted that, unlike most UN discussions, climate decisions must require consensus rather than a two-thirds majority.
Advising Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states is Don Pearlman, a Reagan-era energy official and lobbyist for major U.S. fossil fuel companies who was profiled by the German magazine Der Spiegel at the time. Known as the “High Priest of the Carbon Club”.
He suggested a push to give each country a veto power. Since then, Saudi Arabia and other countries have used it to confuse issues large and small. Just days ago, they joined forces with other conservative autocrats to block discussions about gender inequality and climate change. At COP29, large emerging economies stymied serious discussion of efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions by insisting that rich countries fund it first. The Saudi delegation's incompetence and frustration turned into shouting in the final 24 hours.
To be fair, consensus does add weight to every decision of the COP. But there's no denying that it also slows things down. There are a lot of people who want to give it up. But doing so certainly requires consensus.
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Learn more: https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-conference-die-how-save-world-cop29/
Most of the online material about Don Pillman consists of the Green Party venting their frustrations.
Ambiguity is the creed of the high priest of the Carbon Club
Every U.N. meeting on global warming since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro — and there have been eight such…
Wednesday, December 3, 1997 – 00:00
Every UN meeting on global warming since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro – there have been eight such meetings so far – has been staffed by the same figures. They haunt the hallways and halls, tricking deputies into understanding what's going on and making their case.
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Despite Mr. Pillman's influence, not many people have heard of him. He has never missed a meeting and is believed to have read every line of more than 1,000 United Nations documents on climate change.
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A report in Der Spiegel memorably described the publicity-shy lawyer as “the high priest of the carbon club” during the first session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Berlin in 1995. And said his goal is to “ensure that climate protection negotiations end up in the never-ending land of vague statements.”
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Learn more: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/vagueness-is-credo-of-high-priest-of-the-carbon-club-1.133164
But I found this positive article below;
Donald Pearlman obituary
Donald H. Pearlman Donald H. Pearlman, 69, of Portland, Ore., died of complications from lung cancer on August 13, 2005, in Washington, D.C. died at Washington Hospital Center. Mr. Pearman had a distinguished career in public service, serving for more than six years as the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of Energy and the Administrative Assistant to the Department of the Interior during the Reagan Administration. In this role, he is responsible for closely overseeing major and wide-ranging policy initiatives across these departments. After President Ronald Reagan left office in 1989, Mr. Pearlman became a partner at the law firm Patton Boggs in Washington, D.C., where he established himself as a leading expert on global climate change. He has participated in many international conferences on this and related topics. Prior to joining the Reagan Administration, Mr. Pearlman was a member of the Oregon State Bar and served as a senior partner at Keane, Harper, Pearlman and Copeland in Portland. He joined the firm after clerking for a federal judge in Nevada after graduating from Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Pearlman graduated from Grant High School in Portland and attended Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he graduated magna cum laude in economics. He is survived by his wife of 45 years (the former Shirley Bullock), son Bradley of Seattle, daughter Stephanie Mennett of Bristol, VA, 6 grandchildren; brother Gary of Portland; The service will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday, August 17, at Ahavai Shalom Cemetery in Portland. In memory of the American Cancer Society.
To plant a tree in memory, visit the Sympathy Shop.
Published by The Oregonian on August 17, 2005.
Who would have thought? President Reagan and his team are still protecting us all from green communism, even in death.
I believe we owe these gentlemen a deep debt of gratitude. If the Saudis had not heeded Pillman's advice and insisted on inserting these key provisions into the COP Charter, and if Pillman had not spent much of the last decade of his life, who knows where we would be living today What kind of horror show world is this?
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