From Dubai COP 28
this year’s most forthright broadside came from British hedge fund billionaire and philanthropist Chris Hohn.
“There is a myth that companies are going to decarbonise voluntarily. It’s completely obvious that voluntary won’t work, can’t work, even though it is in the long-term interests of companies to decarbonise,” he told a panel. “Voluntary doesn’t work because decarbonisation costs money.”
Investors, wallowing in “ignorance or wilful ignorance”, were not putting enough pressure on companies to take the plunge, he said. So only regulation, taxes and subsidies would do the trick.
“In order to get that regulation, the companies themselves need to ask for it. Because that’s who the regulators listen to,” he said. “Everyone must push for regulation on companies to reduce their emissions. Otherwise they will just keep doing what they can get away with, and the world will burn down.”
Whether executives and political leaders talked about emissions-reduction frameworks during their evenings at Goals House and elsewhere, nobody but they will know. After four or five days of the long COP fortnight, most have flown out of Dubai. Whether it’s back home to business as usual, time will tell.
(20min delay)