2024-27 COP29 - the COP in Baku
Monday, November 25, 2024 It failed, in large part because the UN still doesn't know how best a diverse group of participants can come to a collective consensus. Obvioulsy, it cannot be done by majority vote. So they throw the baby out with the bathwater, and don't use voting at all! Instead, at Saudi Arabia's suggestion, they use what they call consensus - protracted discussions, countless coffees, and often the most bizarre use of the chairperson's gavel - with every country having a veto. The very opposite of consensus. So, needless to say, someone in Baku was bound to apply the veto - and it was... Saudi Arabia.
But why does no one even try preferential voting? Why do so many politicians want, either (a) to win, or (b) not to lose, i.e., to veto; either (a) win everything, or (b) lose nothing. Are politicians within countries, and countries in the UN, unable to accept a methodology, the use of which would mean that the outcome was (almost) bound to be a compromise?
