Accountability Must Be the First Climate Solution

COP28 and the Limits of Eco Modernism

Amy Westervelt

This week, Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the 

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2010-2016

, key architect of the Paris Agreement, and longtime supporter of the idea that fossil fuel companies need to have a seat at the climate negotiations table, had an important realization: the fossil fuel industry will fight against climate action til its dying breath. Writing in Al Jazeera, Figueres came clean about her integral role in supporting the industry's narrative about transition.

"More than most members of the climate community, I have for years held space for the oil and gas industry to finally wake up and stand up to its critical responsibility in history. I have done so because I was convinced the global economy could not be decarbonised without their constructive participation and I was therefore willing to support the transformation of their business model." —

What fossil fuel companies have done with their record profits over the past 12 months, however, has changed her mind, Figueres wrote. Rather than investing those profits in decarbonization, fossil fuel companies are stepping back from their commitments to emissions reductions and transition. "On top of that, the industry as a whole is making plans to explore new sources of polluting fossil fuels and, in the United States, intimidating stakeholders who have been moving towards environmental, social and governance responsibility."

There is a mountain of evidence stretching back more than a century that that's exactly what they would do, and literally not one bit of proof that they'd ever behave differently.

Look, I had a moment in my 20s when I too anthropomorphized companies and thought we needed to give em a chance. People learn the lesson that companies are not in fact people in their own way and at their own pace, and generally I hate the sort of gatekeeper, "I discovered this band," purity test bullshit that is far too commonly found in the climate space. And yet. I think we have to look differently at this situation when we're talking about powerful people. In this case, we are not talking about your mom or the boomer neighbor down the street who's finally waking up to how the world works, we are talking about someone who weilded an 

 amount of power over how literally everyone with the power to do something about climate change has viewed the problem, during the most important decades we had to act. I've been reporting on climate for more than 20 years; during that time, I have talked to hundreds of people who have used Figueres' words and actions to justify continuing to enable fossil fuel industry deception and delay. Still today, folks like John Kerry, Mike Bloomberg, and Bill Gates echo the "we need all hands on deck" reasoning about the fossil fuel industry that Figueres promoted for years. It's wonderful that at 65 she has finally seen the light, but in my opinion accountability 

 at the mea culpa. It can't end there, or it means less than nothing.

It's only been a few days since Figueres's big public turn, and listen, it 

take cojones to admit that you've been wrong in a big way and to do so very publicly. I applaud that bravery! 

 I hope in the coming months we can count on Figueres to hip check some of the folks she's provided cover for over the years. Particularly as we hurtle toward a COP deeply coopted by fossil fuel interests, I hope to see Figueres as loudly and prominently criticizing that influece as she once welcomed it.

S3 PR Documents

S1 Climate Denial Documents

S3, Ep8 | Meet The Harrisons

S3, Ep3 | The Kids Are All Angry!

Mea Culpas Are Great, But Climate Leaders Need to Model Real Accountability

Mary Annaïse Heglar

Today on Hot Take, Amy and Mary revisit why Joe Biden is struggling with Gen Z, and they talk about the terrible heatwave in South Asia, climate court cases, everybody’s (least) favorite billionaire and more!

Today on Hot Take, Amy and Mary talk with David Wallace-Wells about the lessons we can learn from Covid-19, the parallels between pandemic response and climate response, and how Russia’s war in Ukraine sits at the intersection between the two.

Hot Take S3

S3, Ep4 | A Total Moral Disaster

Hot Take is a holistic, irreverent, honest look at the climate crisis and all the ways media and society are talking—and not talking—about it. Hosted by real-life friends Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt—an essayist and a journalist— Hot Take offers a unique perspective on the issue of climate change. With a breath of fresh humanity and humor, conversation moves swiftly from cackling about the bad week an oil company had, to speaking seriously and passionately about the unequal distribution of climate impacts and our own experiences of climate grief. And then washing it down with a round of dad jokes! Every week, we’ll connect you with the latest climate news and with the journalists and storytellers trying to make sense of this complex issue to help you see the world through climate-colored glasses. We ended production on Hot Take at the end of 2022, but you can still access episodes here, or 

A holistic, irreverent, honest look at the climate crisis and all the ways media and society are talking—and not talking—about it.

Hot Take

Transcription

S3, Ep1 | The Real F&#ckBois of Fossil Fuel

S3, Ep2 | Free Britney and Lock Up Exxon

S3, Ep5 |  Down Uterus! Down Girl! with Rebecca Solnit

S3, Ep6 | Of Meat and Men, with Alicia Kennedy

S3, Ep7 | Death of Democracy with Adam Serwer

S3, Ep8 | A Republican Climate Plan?

Fossil Fuel Workers Are Dying Inhaling Gases — Despite U.S. Warnings to Big Oil

S3, Ep9 | How Many Oil Jobs Are There Really?

S3, Ep10 | Trans Rights Are Climate Justice

SCOTUS Says No to Exxon, Now the Corporate Free Speech Fight Begins

Climate Cases

S3, Ep11 | Supremely F*&cked

S3, Ep12 | “Resistance” Over “Resilience”

S3, Ep13 | Joe Manchin v The World

The Real Free Speech Threat

S3, Ep14 | Climate Behind Bars

S3, Ep15 | The Quiet Climate Emergency

S3, Ep16 | Devil in the IRA Details

S3, Ep17 | Amy and Mary Take a TV Break

S3, Ep18 | A FOX in the Newsroom

S3, Ep19 | Climate Colonialism 101

S3, Ep20 | Both Sides of the Mississippi

S3, Ep21 | Follow the Money, Eat the Rich

Personal Essay: I Am a Mad Scientist

S3, Ep22 | Ask a Scientist with NASA’s Dr. Kate Marvel

S3, Ep23 | Hurricane Season Heats Up

S3, Ep24 | Reclaiming Identity Politics, with Olufemi Taiwo

S3, Ep25 | Climate Candidates to Watch in the Midterms

Hot Take S2

S2, Ep1 | Media in Meltdown and Climate in Crisis, with Kendra Pierre-Louis

S2, Ep2 | Mary and Amy Watched “The Politician”

S2, Ep3 | Climate Bois Club, with Kate Aronoff

S2, Ep4 | Hate to Say We Told You So, with Brian Kahn

S2, Ep5 | Why Is It So Hard to Talk About Climate and Food? With David Tamarkin

S2, Ep6 | No Ordinary Pain: Katrina at 15 (with Story Collider)

S2, Ep7 | There’s No Climate Justice without Indigenous Sovereignty, with Rebecca Nagle

S2, Ep8 | Mary and Amy Watched “I May Destroy You”

S2, EP9 |  Around the Way, with Drew Costley

S2, Ep10 |  The Flyest Debate Ever, with Brian Kahn

S2, Ep11 | Political Instability =/ Planetary Instability, with Justin Worland

S2, Ep12 | All the Lives in the Balance, with Rachel Ramirez

S2, Ep13 | Mitch McConnell’s Cold, Dead Hands

S2, Ep14 | Making the Case, with Rihana Gunn-Wright

S2, Ep15 | 2020: The Shitshow

S2, Ep16 | No Better Time for Climate Reparations, with Tamara Toles O’Laughlin

S2, Ep17 | Blood for Oil, with Antonia Juhasz

S2, Ep18 | Two Sides to Every Story?  With Lewis Wallace

S2, Ep19 | The Greenwashing Olympics, with Emily Atkin and Brian Kahn

S2, Ep20 | The Ultimate Abolition

S2, Ep21 | Hot and Cold with Rev Yearwood and The Coolest Show

S2, Ep22 | April 20 Is #FUBPDay

S2, Ep23 | Moving Fast and Breaking Sh*t

The Reason Covid-19 and Climate Seem So Similar: Disinformation

S2, Ep24 | What Covid and Climate Have in Common: Science Denial, with ProPublica’s Caroline Chen

S2, Ep25 | Big Oil Had a Bad Month (Which Means We Had a Good One)

Hot Take S1

S1, Ep1 | Fangirl v Fangirl

S1, Ep2 | 2016-2017 in Review: The Hangover

S1, Ep3 | 2018: The Wake-Up Call

S1, Ep4 | 2019: It’s Go Time

S1, Ep5 | Jan 2020: No Chill, with Meera Subramanian

S1, Ep6 | Feb 2020: More Fucking Greenwashing! With Maddie Stone

S1, Ep7 | March 2020: Pandemic, Primaries, and Not Asking Permission, with Sarah Miller

S1, Ep8 | March 22, 2020: Seeing Corona Through Climate-Colored Glasses, with David Wallace-Wells

S1, Ep9 | Disaster Denialism with Dr. Samantha Montano

S1, Ep10 | So This Is Purgatory, with Eric Holthaus

S1, Ep11 | Season 1 Finale: Rum O’Clock!

S3, Ep3 | The Kids Are All Angry!

About This Episode

Transcript

Next Up

S3, Ep4 | A Total Moral Disaster

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Mea Culpas Are Great, But Climate Leaders Need to Model Real Accountability