Spain and Italy are the European Climate losers:Time to change strategy
World Leaders and policy makers are getting ready to attend the COP 28 climate summit in late November which this year is hosted by the United Arab Emirate (UAE), the 7th largest oil producer in the world. This is the first time a leading hydrocarbon producer hosts the global summit. Expectations are high, after several consecutive inconclusive climate summits. At least 140 Presidents and Prime Ministers will gather in Dubai to take stock on decarbonization progress and seek to devise a low carbo economic green growth path forward.
As this is happening, many countries including Canada, the US, the UAE, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are announcing billions of dollars in new decarbonization projects from carbon capture and storage, green hydrogen, carbon trading and reforestation. Italy and Spain, on the other hand, two countries heavily impacted by climate change and variability are still soul-searching to define a cohesive green-growth strategy. These countries continue to deny the relations between human activities and the changing climate, and the governments are being lobbied by national corporations that refuse to adjust to a lower-carbon intensive economy. In so doing, they are slowing innovation and investment in a low carbon future.
