Statement by EC President Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen at COP28

This fiction is created as a way to draw attention of the public to major challenges lying ahead of humanity. Ukraine is on its way to become a member of the European Union. It is important what the future policies of the EU will be. So, please consider this text as a genuine wish of how one of the prominent EU leaders could potentially address the global audience to make a real positive difference.

The true author may not necessarily represent the official view of the government of Ukraine.

Dear delegates of COP28,

We meet at a time of big crises and big opportunities. I shall be honest with you.The latest data by climate scientists show that the global warming is going to be much worse and happen much faster than expected. We thought it might affect our grandchildren, but it becomes horrifyingly clear that we shall experience it already in our own lifetime. We shall cross 1.5°C next year, and 2°C by the end of 2030s, with no end in sight. That bodes disaster for drinking water, foods and many human lives. We may see the grand collapse of the current human civilization by 2050. A small consolation is that that may not necessarily lead to total human extinction.

We were wrong about the main cause of the global warming. We are so much obsessed with CO2. But CO2 is just a symptom. We picked on it because we could measure it. We are so proud about this. However, fossil fuels are just one of many culprits. The real problem is overproduction and overconsumption of all energy and materials. The real problem is human greed and hubris. We put the man, its needs, interests and desires in the center of the universe. We have been playing God subduing and devouring Nature. Now is the time of reckoning.

We were wrong about the solutions. We put too much blind faith in human ingenuity. Decarbonization alone will not help us, because fewer emissions are still emissions. They are to continue at least until 2070, along with the rising temperatures and global boiling. Besides, the global ocean will spew back out the sequestered carbon nipping our impotent efforts in the bud.

Technologies will not save us either, especially when they are non-existent. Technologies are narrow, mechanistic and reductionist. Their inventors have no understanding of, nor respect for the wholeness, diversity, richness and beauty of life.

I must confess that the Green Deal in its current design is doomed to fail. The renewables are not replacing but adding to fossil fuels. Their proportion of 15% by 85% for primary energy has remained the same in the last 40 years. The desired decoupling of economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions is not there either and shall never be. High energy efficiency or labor productivity, paradoxically, lead to increased cumulative production and consumption. Efficiency is unnatural. Nature is always redundant assuring reproduction.

We shan’t have enough rare Earth minerals to build electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines. And those are not even renewables. They will not grow back when their time is up. They require dirty mining and processing and must be replaced every 20-25 years, with very little recycling.

We polluted the planet with so many chemicals that they can be found in the Himalayas, near the two Poles, on the ocean bed and in our bodies. And yet we offer geo-engineering and genetic engineering as our only salvation. How ironic. How dangerous.

We blasphemed the word "Progress" and the expression "Developed Countries", for there is nothing progressive nor developed in the present destruction of the planet. We try to fix our many problems with the mindset and tools that created those problems. What is the famous definition of insanity? To do the same things over and over again, and expect a different result.

Ideologically, both communism and capitalism are to blame for this "brave new world". Communism – for its utter disregard for both humans and nature and the killing of millions. Capitalism – for its drive for profit as the highest value to the detriment of true ecological and societal values, and it also resulted in the killing of millions. Countries with communist regimes but capitalist economies kill twice as many and twice as fast.

The West considers itself the beacon of democracy wondering why the Global South hates it. That is because the military colonialism of the preceding centuries was replaced since 1970s by economic, financial and legal colonialism embodied in multinational corporations, international financial institutions, the International Convention for the settlement of investment disputes and similar "civilized" methods of blackmail and racket. They have been plundering and extracting the natural resources of the developing nations at a fraction of their true value bringing home huge profits while externalizing drought, floods, fires, waste, degradation of soils, sick people, malnutrition, hunger and death. And today we criticize those poor guys for emitting too much GHG trying to catch up with us.

Besides, this big business has been corrupting and undermining our own democracies by capturing the media and governments, using regulating agencies as "the revolving doors", especially in the fields of fossil fuels, agriculture, food production and medical industry. How dare we teach others the lessons of democracy, when our own democracy always ends at where big money begins. The sacred cow of capitalism stinks. The money stinks.

This is the true face of the "white people" capitalism. As Bill Gates arrogantly put it: "No temperate country is going to become uninhabitable". He and his fellow billionaires offer "golden rice", lab soy meat and GMOs to billions of the impoverished, while buying up the best pristine lands to grow real food for themselves and their offspring.

So, when we appeal to Africans, Asians or Latin Americans to stand with Ukraine in the global struggle of democracies against totalitarian regimes, no wonder that they revolt at our cynicism and rebel against double standards, even while being sympathetic for the Ukrainian cause.

The richer nations counted on the mild impact of climate change on their communities. They hoped to continue to prosper at the same rate of lavishness and hedonism not having to sacrifice their rich daily habits. However, the climatic Karma caught up with them threatening to decimate the Global North as well…

Dear sisters and brothers across the globe,

I may have scared you with these revelations. However, it would be unfair of me not to offer the true solutions, which I will enumerate next.

First about Climate

We need to draw down carbon, not just reduce emissions. What is the best way to accomplish this task? It is nature-based. It always has been and must be nature-based only. Forget about fancy technologies. Pay attention to hydrology and soil microbiome. Photosynthesis with its quantum subcellular biochemical reactions has 100% efficiency. And it is free of charge – a taboo for capitalists. Well, they will have to put up with that.

In the last 12 000 years humanity degraded 5 bln. ha of land through its unsustainable agriculture causing erosion and later massive chemical contamination. The science tells us that it is enough to regenerate 10% of that territory (500 mln. ha) to sequester naturally 20 GtC per year. This amount is not only sufficient to buffer annual 10GtC emissions, but also to remove additional 10GtC of historical emissions thus effectively reversing global warming(!).

The regeneration must be biodiverse and with perennials. The EU Nature Restoration Law and the future Soil Health Law are steps in the right direction. The next step shall be transition to 100% organic agricultural production in the EU in the next 5 years. This little time is sufficient to restore primordial beneficial and truly divine symbiosis between the soil microorganisms and plants that silly humans have been trying to destroy in the last 100 years. This seminal decision will mitigate climate change, restore normal water cycles, fix carbon, improve soil microbiome and human health, prevent drought and floods. Besides, farmers will cut their debts or losses by foregoing on chemical inputs from parasitic surrounding companies. Organic production with landrace seeds is ecologically safe and economically viable.

The advocates of chemical agriculture tell us lies about the need to feed the world. They produce monocultures, mostly sugars, grains and oils. Those are the exact foods that make people sick causing the pandemic of all chronic physiological and psychiatric diseases. In addition to pesticides in our gut, nitrates in our blood and neurotoxins in our brain. This system is perverse. This system is criminal. We must kill it. We shall stop measuring yields above nutrition and health. There will be enough healthy foods to feed 10 billion people. The EU will lead by example providing financial incentives to regenerative organic agricultural practices and withdrawing those from chemical agrobusinesses. We shall be partnering with like-minded countries and regions.

Second about Economy

The EU shall become growth agnostic. I remember speaking myself at the Beyond Growth Conference in the European Parliament last May, when I could not stop arguing the importance of economic growth. I was wrong. I am very ashamed of myself. GDP is the wrong measure of economy. Its authors never proposed it as such. We shall adopt a new index of genuine progress that would include and prioritize ecological and social aspects of economic activity, in harmony with nature and among people. No economic activity will be allowed if it brings about pollution or inequity. Forget mantras about jobs, wages and salaries or inflation. Most of the people will become self-employed and self-sustained.

Other methods to cure capitalism from its excesses will be progressive taxation, a cap on maximum profits and on the size of business, heavy carbon taxes and import duties, market access denial for transnational corporations, overhaul of the financial and banking system, which nourishes the present discredited economic system.

The EU will promote deglobalization, relocalisation and deurbanization.

In order to survive on this planet, we need to contract our economies by approximately 80%. How to achieve that?

By producing and consuming durable and reparable long-lasting goods close to home. By cutting global supply chains, shipments and travel. By disrupting the commodities trade. By creating small organic cluster farms around cities and towns producing local food.

In addition, we need to disperse big city agglomerates. Cities are not viable. Ancient city civilizations always collapsed. Megapolises devour millions of tons of resources and produce millions of tons of waste. They create heat traps. They are energy hungry. We cannot afford that.

Third about Justice

We must redistribute wealth inside our societies through appropriate fiscal policies and changes to the structure of our economies. Above a certain figure the tax will be 100%. We may not have billionaires, because the trickledown economy is a myth. Small businesses ought to make up over 90% of all economic activity.

We must redistribute wealth globally. Instead of extracting mineral resources worldwide or selling junk food to the Global South, we should help them regenerate their soils to grow healthy nutritious food and to heal the environment. We shall write off their debts. We shall withdraw our polluting companies from those jurisdictions.

This is in our interest too. Otherwise, we shall have tens of millions of climate migrants at our doorstep very soon.

Fourth and final about Geopolitics and Democracy

When Europe implements the above-mentioned revolutionary transformations, it will become the true beacon of democracy. It will become the magnet as an example, not as a destination. Europe will maintain the closest economic and cultural ties with the like-minded democratic political systems; and it will help other friendly nations and regions to build a similar system, where people are genuinely happy with much less consumption, but a very strong societal fabric.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I call on our strategic partners in other parts of the world, first and foremost the United States of America, to follow Europe on this thorny path to climate safety, clean environment, economic sufficiency, geopolitical relevance and high democratic reputation.

Thank you.