On Friday 23 June 2023, an important international finance meeting took place in Paris, which largely passed unnoticed as the international media did not focus too much on it. Emmanuel Macron— an investment banker before he became President of France— had organized the
Great piece. I will only argue the bit on "Macron decided to reinvent himself as an environmentalist". In fact he has been a creature of the powerful French global corporations/environmental lobby even before he became president. The environmental scam from the start has been pushed globally by banks and corporations like Veolia and the like, covering electricity production, water supply, sewage systems, etc etc. Africa was big on the agenda. I remember how excited the CEOs/politicians were to have found a way to reinvent the Françafrique (i.e. aid given to African countries to spend on French contractors) in a greenwashed version. This was very much in evidence at and around the Paris climate summit COP 21 in 2015. Macron was the minister of economy of the dimwit president Hollande at the time and obviously deeply invested in all this.
I read about Ruto's speech at the time, but this was the first time seeing the video. Impressive. I'm going to have to find a copy and upload. Everyone should.
I must respectfully disagree with your characterisation of Mr Ramaphosa’s demands for climate financing funds to be begging. Climate financing is essentially the Western Nation paying less developed country to follow their unrealistic climate regulations designed for developed and deindustrialising economies who can afford up-front investments for green energy - after they've already made their buck polluting the world for the past few centuries, it is a just and equitable demand if they want much poorer nations to abide by the same environmental rules, which would have had a serious impact on growth and industrialisation.
Great piece. I will only argue the bit on "Macron decided to reinvent himself as an environmentalist". In fact he has been a creature of the powerful French global corporations/environmental lobby even before he became president. The environmental scam from the start has been pushed globally by banks and corporations like Veolia and the like, covering electricity production, water supply, sewage systems, etc etc. Africa was big on the agenda. I remember how excited the CEOs/politicians were to have found a way to reinvent the Françafrique (i.e. aid given to African countries to spend on French contractors) in a greenwashed version. This was very much in evidence at and around the Paris climate summit COP 21 in 2015. Macron was the minister of economy of the dimwit president Hollande at the time and obviously deeply invested in all this.
I read about Ruto's speech at the time, but this was the first time seeing the video. Impressive. I'm going to have to find a copy and upload. Everyone should.
I must respectfully disagree with your characterisation of Mr Ramaphosa’s demands for climate financing funds to be begging. Climate financing is essentially the Western Nation paying less developed country to follow their unrealistic climate regulations designed for developed and deindustrialising economies who can afford up-front investments for green energy - after they've already made their buck polluting the world for the past few centuries, it is a just and equitable demand if they want much poorer nations to abide by the same environmental rules, which would have had a serious impact on growth and industrialisation.