Fossil Fuels Are Going to be Hard to Beat

Fossil fuel lobbyists are actually the largest single contingent of the COP (Conference of Parties on climate change) meetings. Sure, there are government entities, environmental protection organizations, the big players in solar, wind, energy storage, electric transportation, and so on, but there are more people from Big Oil/Gas/Coal than any other group, and it’s clear that they will fight low-carbon sources of energy to the very end.

ExxonMobil earned $8.6 billion in the third quarter of 2024, but that’s because they are not required to pay for the long-term environmental damage that their products are inflicting on the planet.

That sum of cash carries with it an immense amount of political power, making this transition an intensely difficult one.