By JOHN PRIETO

On the final day of the COP28 climate conference in Dubai last fall, the Washington Post updated their live blog of events at the conference with the title “Countries clinch unprecedented deal to transition away from fossil fuels.” The triumphalism proceeded into an article on the “Winners and Losers” of the conference. One of the main winners was the United Arab Emirates, the petro-state that played host to this year’s iteration and that chose the head of its state petroleum company as president of the proceedings. This was an important victory for the UAE to help it be seen as a modern state that seeks to be part of the solution and not a roadblock.

In particular, the Washington Post saw fit to laud the fact that the “bathrooms were spotless round-the-clock.” Of course, the bathrooms are undoubtedly cleaned by hyper-exploited and abused migrant laborers from frontline communities such as Pakistan, still reeling from its own experience with the new normal of climate disaster.

To be fair to the Washington Post, it must be quite an effort to keep the toilets clean in a building full of so much bullshit. However, actual policy came out of the conference. One much sought-after reform was the creation of a Loss and Damage Fund for frontline and underdeveloped nations to assist them with remediating the impacts of climate change. This fund, according to a major promise made in 2020, was supposed to offer $100 billion for those most affected by climate change. The reality is that the fund has received less than 1 percent of the funding that was promised and about 0.2% of the total funding estimated to be needed.

Even if it were funded, however, it’s unlikely it would get where it needs to, as a report in Mangabay showed. A public-private fund of $1.7 billion, which had been earmarked for supporting the land rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, has largely gone to international NGOs, with total disbursements to Indigenous communities dropping from 2.9% to 2.1% in its second year.

So what is the outcome of COP28? Is it really all just clean bathrooms and unfunded breadcrumbs? Yes, that’s right. As Professor Mike Berners-Lee said in a quote to The Guardian: “COP28 is the fossil-fuel industry’s dream outcome, because it looks like progress, but it isn’t.”

While U.S. delegates were championing a commitment to the complete phase-out of fossil fuels as part of the agreement (wording that failed to make it into the final agreement,) the U.S. has been producing oil and gas at a record rate. In fact, Joe Biden’s much vaunted “green” Inflation Reduction Act will likely see production of oil and gas increase 13% by 2035, primarily led by a 23% increase in exports.

Scientists are clear that we must prevent an increase in warming beyond 1.5° Celsius in order to avoid passing tipping points for disastrous feedback loops. But despite the urgency, the more frequent experience of climate disasters, and the mass protests and spread of consciousness about the need to end fossil fuels, motion toward that goal is miniscule. Despite the UN’s own warning that we are currently on track for warming of 2.5-2.9° C—a recipe for catastrophe—fossil fuel companies continue to concentrate ownership of fuel reserves into fewer hands, expanding production and failing to make good on promises made in greenwashing campaigns. Not a single G20 country has a plan in place that would meet the requirements for limiting warming to 1.5° C.

Fossil-fuel companies promise us futuristic technology to solve these problems. Carbon capture and sequestration is going to change the future, they say! Yet no model for carbon capture exists on a scale to meet the needs of the planet. Financiers and capitalist governments promise that carbon-trading schemes will bring wealth to the frontline communities and force carbon-producing companies to pay for their pollution. The reality is instead one of worthless “phantom” carbon credits, which represent no real reduction in CO2, and land grabs by countries and corporations seeking to “plant trees and protect forests” and sell credits on the backs of displaced Indigenous communities.

Nothing short of the complete cessation of fossil fuel production and use will be enough to successfully save our planet. As Workers’ Voice said in our 2022 Political Resolution: “The idea that the capitalist system of endless growth and production for profit is an obstacle to saving humanity’s eco-niche on the planet is getting a greater and greater hearing.” It is the communities of oppressed, Indigenous, and working peoples that face the future of climate disaster most acutely. The capitalists and their yearly horse-trading conferences have shown their consistent inability to confront the crisis. So, a campaign to end fossil fuels must be a field of struggle for the workers’ movement.

Recently, the Panamanian working class has shown us the path forward. After their Congress approved a contract with a local subsidiary of the transnational mining company, First Quantum Minerals, a mass social movement that had been growing in opposition to the concessions to the company took to the streets. Teachers’ unions, construction workers’ unions, Indigenous organizations, and many others united, establishing road blockades and going on strike, demanding an end to the contract—which many saw as unconstitutional. This mass movement eventually mobilized nearly a million people across the country on Nov. 22, leading to the cancellation of the contract on Nov. 28, the resignation of the Minister of Commerce who had approved it, and a moratorium on new mining concessions.

We must demand an end to fossil fuels. This task will require the mass mobilization of the vanguard for demands such as the nationalization of oil and electrical infrastructure under workers’ control, job-training programs to facilitate the transition to new industries created by the needs of a carbon-free economy, and reparations for frontline communities, amongst many more. It is the task of revolutionaries to work in these movements and build them with the goal of advancing their mass character among the oppressed and exploited in society.