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A very special awards ceremony was held in Dubai, where the COP28 climate summit is ongoing, on Sunday.

That evening, Climate Action Network-International, a global network of environmental nongovernmental organizations, presented Fossil of the Day awards to countries that are “doing the most to achieve the least” in terms of progress on climate change.

It is a dishonorable “award” meant to criticize and shame “climate villains.” New Zealand, Japan and the US were the first countries to take home the title at this year’s UN climate conference.

At the ceremony, held on Sunday evening on the grounds of the summit, a crowd of about 50 people booed and cheered as the emcee, donning a black suit decorated with dinosaur bones, shouted, “Who is bad, who is worse? All of the blame, all of the shame. Fossil of the Day. Who will win today?”

As is tradition at the mock awards ceremonies, which have been hosted each year by Climate Action Network-International since 1999, all participants came together in a chorus to sing the Fossil of the Day song.

Coming in as first runner up, the person who accepted the prize on behalf of the US poked fun at their country’s climate policies, saying, “We usually get first place in everything, so I don’t know why we only placed third.”

While New Zealand has been active in the fight against climate change, including advocating for alternatives to fossil fuel, the country’s climate policy has retreated since a new government took office last month, earning it the disgrace of the “winner” at the first awards ceremony of this year’s climate conference.

The New Zealand government recently announced plans to reopen Aotearoa waters to oil and gas exploration, which had been banned.

“We remember the decade-long campaign led by Indigenous Māori communities who succeeded in achieving a ban on oil and gas exploration in New Zealand’s oceans. Not only does Watts and the rest of the New Zealand government want to remove the country’s legacy of climate leadership but they also seek to redefine legislative interpretation of the country’s founding Treaty with Māori communities, to reassess Treaty-based policies, and to roll back official use of Māori language — undoing the progress made between Māori and government relationships,” the network said in a press release posted on its official blog.

Japan was also named a second runner up for actively trying to extend the use of fossil fuels by burning hydrogen and ammonia alongside gas and coal as low-carbon sources of energy. The climate coalition characterized this as nothing more than an attempt at “greenwashing” to keep thermal power plants running longer, criticizing Japan’s actions for “delaying the transition from fossil fuels to renewables, adding hurdles to achieving the global goal of tripling renewables.”

The US was awarded the prize for prioritizing the instigation of conflict over climate issues, including excessive military spending and tripling nuclear capacity by 2050, rather than funding relief for the damage caused by climate change. Pointing out that the US has pledged US$17.5 million to the so-called loss and damage fund while allocating more than US$38 billion in military aid to Israel and US$60 billion for the war in Ukraine, Climate Action Network-International commented that “this paltry contribution to help heal climate wounds is the height of hypocrisy.”

By Kim Jeong-su, senior staff writer; Ki Min-do, staff reporter

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