Al Gore plans to break the petrostate stranglehold on climate progress
Dec 6, 2023
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Former US Vice President Al Gore discusses breaking the petrostate stranglehold on climate progress and the influence of oil companies in shaping COP agenda. He highlights the need to phase out fossil fuels and reform consensus-based decision-making. Gore emphasizes the role of capitalism in addressing climate change, the importance of reelecting Biden, and the power of transparency and data. The podcast also includes a segment thanking listeners and promoting the Bloomberg Green newsletter.
Al Gore proposes reforming the COP process by implementing a super majority vote to phase out fossil fuels and overcome petrostate obstruction.
Gore advocates for the need to address negative externalities of capitalism, such as environmental costs, inequality, and resource depletion, to effectively tackle the climate crisis.
Deep dives
Reforming the COP Process to Phase Out Fossil Fuels
Former US Vice President Al Gore discusses the need for reforming the COP process, emphasizing the urgency to phase out fossil fuels. He highlights the issue with the current consensus-based decision-making, which allows petrostates to obstruct progress. Gore proposes changing the process to allow for a super majority vote, requiring 75% of parties to agree on phasing out fossil fuels. He acknowledges the difficulty of implementing this reform but emphasizes the importance of trying every strategy to address the climate crisis.
Capitalism's Role in Climate Change Solutions
Gore expresses his belief that capitalism, with reforms, can be a powerful tool in solving the climate crisis. He argues that capitalism, when coupled with sustainability measures, can drive the transition to clean energy. However, he acknowledges that reforms must be made to address negative externalities, such as the omission of environmental costs in corporate accounting. He emphasizes the need for deeper reforms to address the depletion of natural resources, inequality, and the distribution of income and net worth.
Democracy and the Climate Crisis
Gore highlights the interconnectedness of the climate crisis and the democratic crisis. He discusses how the rise of social media and the manipulation of information disrupt the balance necessary for functioning democracies. Gore believes that in order to tackle the climate crisis effectively, both democracy and capitalism need reforms. He emphasizes the importance of reconstructing a shared knowledge base and rational discourse to find collective solutions.
Time, Urgency, and Restoring Hope
The conversation concludes with Gore stressing the urgency of addressing the climate crisis. He calls for restoring hope and proving that political will is a renewable resource. Gore emphasizes that human beings possess the capacity to save their future and highlights the necessity of taking immediate action to mitigate the worsening climate-related disasters.
Former US Vice President Al Gore has been going to COP summits since the beginning. But he’s much more than a COP-goer. Many of today’s climate activists say that Gore’s climate documentary An Inconvenient Truth was the reason they became activists. The movie won an Academy Award in 2007 and also bagged him that year’s Nobel Peace Prize alongside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Gore has become the de facto spokesman for climate change. In recent years and especially before COP28, he’s become much more vocal in calling out the villains. He has castigated the role of petrostates and oil companies who shape the COP agenda, saying they’ve “taken the disguise off” and are not good faith partners.
Bloomberg Green senior reporter Akshat Rathi spoke with Al Gore at the Bloomberg Green Summit at COP28 in Dubai to ask him how to break the stranglehold petrostates have over COP, why tackling climate change solves many other major problems, and why big emitters can no longer hide.
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim. Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.