It’s unbelievable and worrisome to return from COP29, the climate conference, having been surrounded by nations and corporate lobbyists advocating for continued and even increasing fossil fuel use. It reminds me of decades ago when Big Tobacco used disinformation and lobbying to weaken health policy on smoking. But we can draw hope from public health winning that battle and creating strong regulations limiting the ability of tobacco companies to influence public policy. We now need to do the same with the fossil fuel industry.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was enacted in 2003 in response to decades of poor behaviour by the tobacco industry. That behaviour included downplaying the health effects of smoking, concerted lobbying to limit regulations on their products, and advertising to entice new users, including teenagers.
Finally, the harms were so clear and the behavior so egregious that countries were convinced to unite to counter their money and power, and the framework was born. Since then, the framework has saved millions of lives, and in turn, revolutionized how we address industries that harm people.
The rapidly worsening impacts of the climate crisis are increasingly apparent, with devastating wildfires, droughts, floods and hurricanes across the world. For a rational civilization, there would be clear incentives to be much bolder in countering this existential crisis. But, in large part, thanks to active disinformation, disruption and lobbying by the fossil fuel industry, the ambition seemed evidently weaker at COP29.
The cracks in the COP climate conference system are so gaping and obvious that there is now a cacophony of voices calling for changes. In particular, the “Club of Rome” suggests reforms that would substantially improve negotiations. The historical approach to the Big Tobacco lobby which includes banning advertising, eliminating lobbying and taxing products (or at least removing subsidies, in the case of fossil fuels) can transform our approach.
The fossil fuel industry's presence at climate talks is as inappropriate as tobacco companies at a lung cancer conference. There were 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists identified there with at least 28 from Canada alone. Prominent fossil fuel lobby organizations had pavilions, including OPEC, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) and Canada’s own Clean Resource Innovation Network (awkwardly named to avoid the words “Canada” and “oil and gas”.)
Meanwhile, authoritarian petrostates have hosted the conference three years in a row, further disrupting the negotiations.
We need regulations to protect against the fossil fuel industry's attempts to delay and dilute effective, life-saving climate legislation. Fossil fuel advertising and public relations campaigns continue to undermine efforts to implement effective measures to discourage fossil fuel use and protect people from pollution and climate change. To reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and stem disinformation that blocks effective climate action, a comprehensive ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship of fossil fuel products and industries is needed.
The climate crisis is a health crisis. As a Canadian emergency physician, I see the fallout firsthand: the asthma exacerbated by wildfire smoke, the loss of primary care by internally displaced people from our annual wildfire events, and the PTSD and depression that follows climate disasters.
And scientists tell us things are going to get worse, possibly much more rapidly than expected. That money is better spent elsewhere — for example, on our teetering health care systems, or climate adaptation and mitigation.
So, I speak on behalf of my patients and my children, and entreat the world: We must do more, faster. Let’s not allow the fossil fuel industry to delay life-saving reforms, as Big Tobacco once did.
Ban fossil fuel advertising. Remove lobbyists from negotiations. End subsidies. The science is clear, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. It’s time to treat fossil fuels like Big Tobacco.
Dr. Joe Vipond is an emergency doctor and the past-president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
Comments
The last paragraph says it all. Thank you for this article.
Climate activists should stop attending and stop legitimizing useless UN climate conferences. Save the airfare and emissions. Stop flying altogether.
The tobacco and fossil-fuel industry comparison is flawed.
In terms of revenues, the fossil-fuel industry is at least four times bigger.
Unlike the tobacco industry, the fossil-fuel industry has captured governments, political parties, regulators, academe, and the media.
The fossil-fuel industry's denial, disinformation, delay, and obstruction machine is far more powerful.
In Canada, the deep state starts with the Big Banks and Corporate Canada. The oil patch's financial backers — and the chief patrons and main constituency of both main federal parties. And O&G shareholders, who live mostly outside the country.
Political parties led by industry-captured politicians — left, right, and centre.
Industry-captured regulators.
CAPP and other industry lobby groups.
The courts, which uphold the rights of extractionist interests over indigenous communities and protestors.
RCMP/CSIS, which crack down on indigenous communities and protestors.
The legions of industry cheerleaders, apologists, and drum-beaters in the media, at the National Post, CBC, and even The Observer's star columnist.
A web of extractionist think tanks: Fraser Institute, Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Ethical Oil, Friends of Science, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Int'l Climate Science Coalition, Canada Action, Resource Works, Canada's Energy Citizens, Canada Proud, Oil Sands Strong, Oil Sands Action, Oil Respect, Canadian Energy Centre, Canada Growth Council, Canada Powered By Women, etc.
Academe engaged in fossil fuel R&D.
Industry-funded scientists doing bad science to create confusion and obstruct action.
Academics who line up to endorse the "climate-sincere" Liberals and their plans to fail on climate before every election — but remain curiously silent while we choke on wildfire smoke.
Explicit climate denial outfits (e.g., Friends of Science).
Implicit climate denial outfits: Corporate pseudo-environmentalists/lobbyists, industry collaborators, and big ENGOs that sideline grassroots activists, support pipelines, carbon capture — and make bad deals on our behalf with industry. Looking at you, Pembina.
"Meet the green group that the oilpatch can work with" (Financial Post, 2016)
The suggestion that we can use the same playbook to rein in the fossil-fuel industry that we used with the tobacco industry is naïve.
The fossil-fuel industry is in power.
Obviously, Joe Vipond, front-line doctor and true stalwart during the pandemic, but more than that, also a serious environmentalist willing to openly identify the PURELY evil politics of current conservatism as entirely responsible for making a disaster SO much worse.
But what else would you expect from the "Ultimate Chaos Peddlers" and/or the "Convoy Party of Canada" or the "Christian Party of Canada," right? Nonetheless, here we are, on the cusp of apparently somehow voting for these same proud boy idiots DESPITE the Trump wrecking ball ALSO quietly ushering in the insane, bible-based Project 2025, the 900- page culmination of big and getting bigger oil and the religious right joining forces. (I suggest googling Tim Dunn, or start subscribing to DeSmog.)
No wonder the noble "pursuit of truth" for its own sake has disappeared. Only in America could that happen so overtly while democracy and theocracy compete covertly as if on a par; such is the degree of their exceptionalism at this point.
This insanity is proof that Joe Rogan's reach is truly legendary in social media and that Christian Nationalism is the dark horse common denominator between our two countries because we have our own home-grown psycho (literally, the guy has a doctorate degree in psychology from U of T) in Jordan Peterson whose latest book "Wrestling with God" is on two bestseller lists I see in the Globe and Mail on the weekend.
But back to Joe, who offers a recognizable "win" at a time when people are despairing, probably in an attempt to inject some hope, something your predictable litany of doom- scrolling seeks to instead squelch completely, laying waste indiscriminately by unfairly including the likes of Max Fawcett....
Do you think virtually everyone who subscribes to the National Observer doesn't KNOW that the fossil-fuel industry is still very much in power?
Personally, my hope comes from another older aspect of "da boys" which is "live by the market, die by the market" because it's the ultimate, neutral arbiter of ALL aspirations.
Max Fawcett supports new taxpayer-owned pipelines and taxpayer-funded carbon capture, both of which perpetuate fossil fuels.
"In the early days, as a supporter of the Trans Mountain pipeline, Fawcett disagreed with some of the ways CNO covered fossil fuels, one of the main drivers of climate change."
"How Canada's National Observer helped bring climate change into the mainstream" (18-Jan-23)
Fawcett's support for O&G export pipelines — premised on a bright future for fossil fuels — comes as no surprise. The former editor of Alberta Oil Magazine and Liberal Party cheerleader has argued for the Trans Mountain Expansion project and taxpayer-funded carbon capture:
-"Should the government kill the Trans Mountain pipeline project?" (National Observer, Feb 22 2022)
-"Steven Guilbeault leads Canada through the hard choices on the road to net-zero" (National Observer, April 18 2022)
-"Suncor goes back to the future with its new CEO. Are its net-zero ambitions next?" (National Observer, Feb 22 2023)
The former editor of Alberta Oil Magazine and Liberal Party cheerleader argued for the Trans Mountain Expansion project and taxpayer-funded carbon capture:
"Should the government kill the Trans Mountain pipeline project?" (2022)
"Killing TMX won't mean that oil doesn't get consumed, or the emissions from it won't be released into the atmosphere. It just means they'll get to market by different — and more expensive — modes of transportation."
Fawcett's talking points come straight from CAPP (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers).
"Steven Guilbeault leads Canada through the hard choices on the road to net-zero" (National Observer, April 18, 2022)
Fawcett: "Yes, Canada could move to wind down oil and gas production more aggressively, but that would only create an opportunity for other producing nations — or OPEC, which has spent the last few years deliberately restricting its supply — to fill the resulting supply gap."
The same argument the Conservatives make. The same arguments Canada's asbestos industry used for years.
"If we don't sell it, someone else will." The drug dealer's defence. "Why should I stop selling crack? Someone else will just take my place."
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Fawcett has bounced back and forth on the federal carbon levy.
1) "Conservatives tweet while Canada burns" (National Observer, Aug 22 2023)
2) "The carbon tax is dead. Climate policy doesn't have to be" (National Observer, March 20 2024)
3) "Justin Trudeau should say yes to a carbon tax showdown" (National Observer, April 11 2024)
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Fawcett promotes the O&G industry's false climate solutions like carbon capture — rejected by all ENGOs.
In 2022, Fawcett spoke confidently of the oil industry's commitment to carbon capture, a fake climate solution at taxpayers' expense:
"But this year's budget, and the incentives it offers for carbon capture and storage, force Canada's oil industry to push more of its chips into the middle on decarbonization. In order to take full advantage of the credit, companies will have to make major investments in carbon capture projects quickly, since it gets cut in half by 2031.
"By the time fossil fuel producers have sunk that capital into emissions-reducing technology, they're not going to want to go backwards, no matter how much a new or different prime minister might want them to. That's especially true if the rest of the world continues to move more decisively towards net-zero in their own economies.
"By tying their hands with their own stated ambitions, which include reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, the federal budget locks Canada's biggest oil companies onto a path they won't easily be able to deviate from."
"Steven Guilbeault leads Canada through the hard choices on the road to net-zero" (National Observer, April 18th 2022)
Fawcett: "Getting anywhere close to that target will require the construction of multiple carbon capture and storage projects, but not a single one of those companies has made a final investment decision yet."
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Fawcett nominates Alberta's Pipeline Queen to replace Jagmeet Singh as federal NDP leader:
"Rachel Notley is Alberta's real progressive conservative" (National Observer, May 4 2023)
"Rachel Notley is done with Alberta politics. Is Ottawa next?" (18-Jan-24)
Fawcett: "Notley's demonstrated ability to win over moderates and expand the appeal and reach of the Alberta NDP might be just what a listless federal party needs to get back in the game."
"Pull Rachel Notley out of retirement, if you have to."
"Jagmeet Singh just played himself" (05-Sep-24)
Imagine a world in which the lead columnists of Canada's leader in climate journalism do not support new pipelines.
completely agree, its time to take BOLD action. COP needs to be hosted by Sweden, Norway or Finland. Countries that are actually courageous. Oil and Gas advertising needs to be banned!