The art of profiting from the “climate crisis” with Qatari oil money, while appearing to be benevolent planetary stewards
One of the major players in setting up a new global governance regime is the American “non-partisan” think-tank Stimson Center. It was founded in 1989 with the stated goal to “enhance global peace”. Stimson does, however, seem to be on a mission for world conquest on behalf of the global corporatocracy using the “climate crisis” as a weapon.
The name is taken from Henry Stimson, US Secretary of War during the Second World War. A lawyer to J.P. Morgan, and a protege of Elihu Root (the founding chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations), that oversaw the development of the A-bomb with the aid from the Rockefeller lawyer John McCloy (Assistant Secretary of War 1941-45).
Their agenda is a continuation of the work that was initiated by Andrew Carnegie and Elihu Root at the beginning of the 20th century and which led up to the creation of the League of Nations in 1920 and the United Nations in 1945.
The founders Barry Blechman and Michael Krepon were members of the Council on Foreign Relations and had previously been involved with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Brookings Institution. Initial funding came from the Carnegie Corporation and the Ford Foundation. Carnegie still remains the largest donor, with the US Department of Defense second (2022).
Stimson are now on a holy mission to upgrade the global system, and runs the Global Governance, Justice & Security Program for this very purpose. The program aims to:
…advance more capable global and regional institutions to better cope with existing and emerging global challenges and to create new opportunities through effective multilateral action, including with the global business community and civil society.
It is safe to say that it is the global corporatocracy that will benefit the most from their climate crusade.
The program builds directly on the recommendations from the Albright-Gambari Commission on Global Security, Justice & Governance’s report Confronting the Crisis in Global Governance, that was supported by The Hague Institute for Global Justice and the Stimson Center, and launched at Andrew Carnegies Peace Palace in The Hague on 16 June 2016.
Two of the projects included in the Global Governance, Justice & Security Program are the Climate Governance Commission and the Global Governance Innovation Network. Both of which work to improve the international global governance architecture by building partnerships with actors who can benefit from the proposed solutions.
These projects are especially involved in this years UN Summit of the Future and the Pact for the Future (with its mission to turbocharge the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development). I give the background in my lecture UN Leader’s Pact for the Future: A Planetary Emergency.
Funding to the projects has been obtained from multiple sources, including the Swedish Global Challenges Foundation and the State of Qatar. The small and incredibly rich oil country was actually the third largest contributor to Stimson in 2022.
Qatar became a British protectorate in 1916, and developed close ties with the US after Qatar’s independence from Britain in 1971. The country hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, Al-Udeid Air Force Base, with 11,000 US military personnel, and became a Major Non-NATO Ally in 2022. The military base functions as a “major staging ground for air operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria”. Qatar participated in the 2011 military intervention in Libya.
But they also have ties with Iran and Hamas. Qatar is one of the largest donors to Hamas, and has hosted their headquarters since 2012. The total payments to Hamas exceeds 1.8 billion dollars and has been transferred monthly in consultation with the U.S. and Israeli governments! The support has been questioned after the 7 October attack but their headquarters will, according to Qatar authorities, remain in Doha as long as “their presence remains beneficial to mediation”.
Global power politics has its own logic, with enemies created and weaponised by the same forces that opposes and combats them. The arms manufacturers are always the winners, regardless of the outcome of a conflict.
The same logic can be applied to climate policy. The country that possesses the third largest natural gas reserves in the world and is the world’s largest carbon emitter per capita, is one of the contributors to the Climate Governance Commission through Qatar Foundations Erthna Center for a Sustainable Future!
The oil fields in Qatar were developed in the middle of the 1930s by the Petroleum Department of Qatar, consisting of British Petroleum (23.75%), Royal Dutch Shell (23.75%), Cie Francaise des Petroles (TotalEnergies) (23.75%), Standard Oil of New Jersey (11.87%), Mobil (11.87%), and Paratex (Glubenkian Foundation) (5.0%).1 It is no wonder the Qatar Peninsula has been in need of “protection” from the British and US military!
The annual Doha Forum is an example on the close cooperation that has developed between the authoritarian Middle East monarchy and the Stimson Center. The forum has been arranged in the Qatari capital since 2001 with the aim to “discuss critical challenges facing the world.” This literary means to highlight crises that creates opportunities for the global business community. Speakers attending in 2023 were UN Secretary General António Guterres and WEF President Børge Brende.
Stimson publishes the Doha Forum Reports together with Qatar Foundation’s The Global Institute for Strategic Research, and are deeply involved in setting the agenda.
The Climate Governance Commission’s convener Maja Groff (a lawyer who has been a teacher at the Hague Academy of International Law in Carnegie’s Peace Palace) discussed the commission’s findings from the report Governing our Planetary Emergency during the session “Governing our Climate Future” in December 2023.
Qatar’s climate commitments clearly has other goals than killing the goose that lays their golden eggs. Oil and gas account for more than 70% of total government revenue. As a major financier of European wind power they can cash in on delivering the needed regulatory power (Liquified Natural Gas), especially in the wake of the sanctions against Russia and the “interruption” of their gas supplies to Europe.2 Qatar Petroleum has partnered with LNG-pioneers ExxonMobil (formerly Standard Oil of New Jersey and Standard Oil of New York) to develop the North Field, the world’s largest non-associated natural gas field.3 Bye bye to Nord Stream and welcome North Field!
The Qatar Investment Authority, that manages the countries oil and natural gas surpluses, is part of a strategic partnership with the Spanish Iberdrola Group. A leading developer of wind energy. This is all about creating business opportunities and make profitable investments. Ahmed Al-Hammadi (WEF Young Global Leader 2019) serves as QIA’s Chief Investment Office for Europe and “leads on the fund’s sustainability approach”.4 QIA also happens to invests in Russia, and owns 19% of the oil giant Rosneft.5
Der Friedensstifter 