Essay by Eric Worrall

“… Arguably, self-destruction was baked into “The Process” from the start. …”

Climate conferences are dying. How to save the world now?

This year’s U.N. climate change summit wore its contradictions and failings on its sleeve, prompting existential anxiety.

By Karl Mathiesen
in BAKU, Azerbaijan

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The mood on the plane was grim, and more than one of those on board must have been wondering: Are these United Nations climate summits doomed?

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In the beginning

Arguably, self-destruction was baked into “The Process” from the start.

When countries were erecting modern climate diplomacy in 1991, Saudi Arabian negotiators insisted that, unlike most U.N. discussions, climate decisions must require consensus, rather than, say, a two-thirds majority.  

Advising the Saudis and other Gulf states was Don Pearlman, a Reagan-era energy official and lobbyist for major American fossil fuel companies, whom the German magazine Der Spiegel dubbed the “High Priest of the Carbon Club” at the time. 

He was advising the push to give every country a veto. And ever since, the Saudis and others have used it to obfuscate on issues large and small. Just days ago, they teamed with other conservative autocracies to block talks about gender inequality and climate change. That played out at COP29 as large emerging economies derailed attempts to seriously discuss cutting greenhouse emissions, insisting that rich countries first pony up the money to do so. Impotence and frustration with the Saudi delegation boiled over into shouting in the final 24 hours.

In fairness, consensus does add weight to every COP decision. But it has also undeniably slowed things down. There are many who want to ditch it. But doing so would, of course, require consensus.

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Read more: https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-conference-die-how-save-world-cop29/

Most of the online material about Don Pearlman is greens venting their frustration.

Vagueness is credo of High Priest of the Carbon Club

Every United Nations conference on global warming since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro – and there have been eight such…

Wed Dec 03 1997 – 00:00

Every United Nations conference on global warming since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro – and there have been eight such meetings so far – is populated by the same cast of characters. They haunt the corridors and the lobbies, buttonholing delegates to find out what’s happening and to put forward their points of view.

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Not many people have heard of Mr Pearlman, though his influence has been enormous. He has never missed a meeting and is believed to have read every single line of well over 1,000 UN documents on climate change.

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A profile in Der Spiegel during the 1995 First Conference of the Parties to the UN Climate Change Convention in Berlin memorably described this publicity-shy lawyer as the “High Priest of the Carbon Club” and said his aim was to “ensure that climate protection negotiations end in the nevernever land of vague declarations.”

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Read more: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/vagueness-is-credo-of-high-priest-of-the-carbon-club-1.133164

But I discovered the following positive article;

Donald Pearlman Obituary

PEARLMAN, DONALD H. Donald H. Pearlman, age 69, formerly of Portland, Oregon died August 13 ,2005, at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC from complications arising out of lung cancer. Mr. Pearlman had a distinguished career in public service as the Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Energy and then of the Department of the Interior for over six years during the Reagan Administration. In this position he was responsible for the close oversight of significant and wide-ranging policy initiatives of those departments. When President Reagan left office in 1989, Mr. Pearlman became a partner in the Washington, DC, law firm of Patton, Boggs, where he established himself as a top expert in global climate change matters. He participated in numerous international conferences on that and related subjects. Prior to joining the Reagan Administration, Mr. Pearlman, a member of the Oregon State Bar, had served as a senior partner in the firm of Keane, Harper, Pearlman and Copeland in Portland. He joined the firm after clerking for a federal judge in Nevada, following his graduation from Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Pearlman graduated from Grant High School, in Portland, and then attended Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduating cum laude in economics. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, the former Shirley Block, his son, Bradley, of Seattle, his daughter, Stephanie Mennitt of Bristow, VA, 6 grandchildren and his brother, Gary, of Portland. The service will be held in Portland at 1 PM on Wednesday, August 17, at Ahavai Shalom Cemetery. Remembrances may be made to the American Cancer Society.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by The Oregonian on Aug. 17, 2005.

Who could have imagined? President Reagan and his team are still protecting us all from green communism, even from beyond the grave.

I believe we owe these gentlemen a big vote of thanks. Who knows what kind of horror show world we would be living in today, if Saudis hadn’t followed Pearlman’s advice and insisted on inserting those critical clauses into the COP charter, and if Pearlman hadn’t spent much of the last decade of his life providing his own brand of enrichment to the climate conference process.