This comes at a time when the UN secretary general has declared "code red" for humanity, and the International Energy Agency has warned that new oil and gas fields are incompatible with the Paris agreement to limit global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels.
To deliberately increase emissions in such circumstances is so contrary to the public good that it suggests a capture of politics by a powerful minority that represents fossil-fuel interests - the behaviour expected in a classic petrostate.
It does not seem to matter which party is in power. When the Democratic president Barack Obama was in the White House, he boasted that the US was pumping more oil than at any time in eight years. The Republican Trump picked up the pace. Then the Democrat Joe Biden opened the spigot even wider.
Esta historia es de la edición August 02, 2024 de The Guardian Weekly.
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Murky love stories, nostalgic pop and an in-your-face masterpiece captured our critics' ears in 2024
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Votes of confidence
From India to Venezuela and Senegal to the US, more people voted this year than ever before, with over 80 elections across the world. With rising authoritarianism and citizen-led resistance revealing its vulnerabilities and resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges, has democracy reached its breaking or turning point?
