COP Hypocrisy

It's COP time again and so here we are, facing the grand spectacle of the “oh-look-they’re-hypocrites” brigade. The kind who love to point out that climate diplomats burn jet fuel on the way to saving the planet. Yes, we’ve heard it all before – the optical hypocrisy, the easy jibe. But let’s not pretend that the world runs on moral purity.

In reality, the firefighters sometimes have to drive diesel engines to get to the blaze. And yes, the tobacco that governments tax while allowing it to be sold still funds the NHS and reduces smoking rates. If that’s hypocrisy, then let’s have more of it, because the results speak for themselves.

And those jets lined up at COP? The optics aren’t great, but the total emissions from the entire conference are roughly what the aviation sector emits every few minutes. Without those summits, there’s no Paris Agreement, no methane reduction pledges, and no coordinated global policy at all. If diplomacy looks messy, that’s because it is - progress always is.

We’ve seen it throughout history. People who plotted to assassinate Hitler weren’t saints, but their so-called hypocrisy was a bid to save millions. In the real world, sometimes you break a rule to stop a catastrophe.

So let’s not fall for the easy sneers. If the end result is a cooler planet, a healthier public, or a freer world, then a bit of surface-level hypocrisy is just the price of doing business. In the end, it’s not the hypocrisy that matters – it’s the world we leave behind.