Australian Targets

Friday, November 18, 2022

Fossil Awards to Egypt for a weak cover text and Israel for greenwashing

The Fossil awards on Solutions Day go to not one, but two countries.

Both Egypt and Israel were nominated for being the worst today. Egypt for its extremely weak first drafts of the Cover text: the decision of the COP. While Fossil of the Day Ceremony was ocurring, COP27 Presidency and UN Secretary General were reading the 'riot Act' to negotiators with so many areas left unresolved. BUT Egypt is responsible for pulling together the COP cover text and the current version is very weak. See Early Draft Cop27 cover decision fails to call for ‘phase-down’ of all fossil fuels (The Guardian)

Israel has it's first pavillion at COP, and while addressing water scarcity and adaptive agriculture is important, the elephant in the room is the human rights abuses to the Palestinian people. Greenwashing by Israel at their pavillion needs to be called out. Their is no climate justice without human rights.

Read the full press release here:


Today’s Fossil of the Day is awarded both to Egypt and Israel.

This morning, the Egyptian presidency issued a COP27 cover decision draft text which is a hodgepodge of different elements and a laundry list of messages lacking vision and structure. It’s one thing to rehash old statements, it’s quite another to backslide and add nothing new.

With such a long text, how did they miss including the call for an equitable phase out of all fossil fuels in it? This proposal has been called for by India, the EU, the US, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and AOSIS, New Zealand and Colombia. And yet, the Egyptian president failed to include it. Furthermore, their clumsy handling of the process has created delays and confusion; undermining collective commitment from countries to achieve a positive outcome at COP27.

After many years of climate negotiations, this is the first time Israel has its own pavilion, and while we welcome their interest in the COP and the climate crisis, we must also remind them that this is not a space to be used for greenwashing over their own human rights record. Israel has used its pavilion to boast about its own successful experiences in adapting to water scarcity challenges and adaptive agriculture.

Acting as an environmental champion means respecting the Palestinian people’s rights to existence. After all, there is no climate justice without human rights. With little to no control over their lands or natural resources, Palestinian people are increasingly vulnerable to the climate crisis.

Both Egypt and Israel are big players in the Middle East region, so it is vital that they address the climate crisis properly.


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