An oil exec, a climate crisis, and reparations: what’s going down at the United Nations summit in Dubai

“There has been an explosion of fossil fuel lobbyists heading to UN talks, with nearly four times more than were granted access last year,” according to a new analysis by a coalition of environmental groups called Kick Big Polluters Out. Lobbyists for coal, oil, and gas got more passes to the conference than the total number of delegates from 10 of the countries most vulnerable to climate change (which includes Somalia, Chad, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Sudan), the Guardian reports.

Demonstrators in inflatable Pikachu costumes showed up at international climate talks in Dubai this weekend to call on Japan to end financing for fossil fuel projects. The photos and video are giving me life this Monday morning.

That includes the US, EU, Brazil, and others that made the pledge during United Nations climate talks taking place in Dubai. Renewables like solar and wind energy are already more affordable than fossil fuels. The bigger question at the international climate talks, though, is whether countries can commit to phasing out coal, oil, and gas to reach goals set in the Paris climate accord.

During a United Nations climate conference, the US joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance. It includes more than 50 other countries that have committed to switch from “unabated coal power generation” to clean energy. But let’s keep it real. The word “unabated” changes everything. It means that power plants can continue to burn coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, as long as they install unproven technologies designed to capture carbon dioxide emissions but not other air pollutants. Such technologies are expected to make electricity more expensive, and have already wasted hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding in failed carbon capture projects. The US recently carved out a similar loop hole for carbon capture in its federal pollution standards for power plants.

The New York Times reported that at the United Nations climate summit, Vice President Kamala Harris said a new final rule put in place by the Environmental Protection Agency will heavily curb energy companies’ methane emissions.

The EPA said in a press release that this rule will mean “a nearly 80 percent reduction” of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

As the Times notes, 50 oil and gas companies pledged similar reductions, though environmental groups are skeptical. In an open letter, 320 organizations signed an open letter criticizing the “voluntary efforts” as a “distraction from the task at hand.”

The US Fusion Energy International Partnership Strategy “will support the timely development, demonstration, and deployment of commercial fusion energy,” the White House announced during a United Nations climate conference going down in Dubai. For decades, scientists have chased breakthroughs in nuclear fusion, seen as the “Holy Grail” of nearly limitless clean energy. Most experts don’t think commercial nuclear fusion power plants can come online in time to meet global climate goals, even under optimistic scenarios. Nevertheless, the Biden administration and Microsoft are supporting startups trying to make fusion a reality.

The plan is to triple nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050. The US joined a coalition of more than 20 countries that set that goal during the United Nations climate conference taking place in Dubai. Never mind the risks across the uranium supply chain or that the US still doesn’t doesn’t know what to do with its nuclear waste, the Biden administration is betting on next-generation nuclear power plants as a source of carbon-free energy.

They join some 12,500 mayors and city governments including Paris, Kolkota, London, Los Angeles, Lima, and Sydney that have endorsed the creation of such a treaty. This latest push comes during a United Nations climate conference in Dubai where delegates are debating a possible deal to phase out fossil fuels.