It's easy to think "this issue doesn't have to do with climate change" and then dismiss it as a climate story, even as it clearly intersects with a climate change agenda/meeting as in the case of Egypt. I think it's telling that COP was placed somewhere where big demonstrations couldn't be held given that they're otherwise a mainstay of these kinds of meetings from WHO to COP. It also speaks to an uncomfortable truth, that the richest countries with the highest emissions also tend to be more democratic whereas people in countries with very little emissions tend to have less of a say in national matters and almost no say in international matters.
That's before you consider that the climate crisis has inspired a sustained protest movement unlike anything we've seen for generations, leading to laws cracking down on various forms of peaceful protest in many jurisdictions around the world. The bad guys are looking for ways to make these protest movements less impactful and one way might be to place these meetings in places that are inaccessible to protest.
There are some legit security concerns for any event of this size, but it stands to reason that placing it in Western or Central Europe would allow a lot more civil society participation than placing it in Egypt. Now that it has been in Egypt there might be a push to place it in similarly problematic countries going forward while using woke washing it with some bullshit about the countries being postcolonial or part of the global south to deflect from the obvious problem of not having an authentic civil society voice at the table.
It's easy to think "this issue doesn't have to do with climate change" and then dismiss it as a climate story, even as it clearly intersects with a climate change agenda/meeting as in the case of Egypt. I think it's telling that COP was placed somewhere where big demonstrations couldn't be held given that they're otherwise a mainstay of these kinds of meetings from WHO to COP. It also speaks to an uncomfortable truth, that the richest countries with the highest emissions also tend to be more democratic whereas people in countries with very little emissions tend to have less of a say in national matters and almost no say in international matters.
That's before you consider that the climate crisis has inspired a sustained protest movement unlike anything we've seen for generations, leading to laws cracking down on various forms of peaceful protest in many jurisdictions around the world. The bad guys are looking for ways to make these protest movements less impactful and one way might be to place these meetings in places that are inaccessible to protest.
There are some legit security concerns for any event of this size, but it stands to reason that placing it in Western or Central Europe would allow a lot more civil society participation than placing it in Egypt. Now that it has been in Egypt there might be a push to place it in similarly problematic countries going forward while using woke washing it with some bullshit about the countries being postcolonial or part of the global south to deflect from the obvious problem of not having an authentic civil society voice at the table.