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s must go. World leaders will fail their people and the planet unless they accept this reality,” she said.Other aghast scientists were reported as stating that the phrasing was a “tragedy for the planet and our future”, a “death certificate” for the planet and, perhaps the most depressing of all, “a dream outcome for the fossil fuel industry”.Back to the original wording. What about this mysterious “in energy systems”? What does that mean? As it turns out, it means there’s a massive loophole because it doesn’t cover fossil fuel use for trifles such as plastics, transport or agriculture.No wonder COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber said that he was “proud of our historic achievement”, he’s also CEO of Abu Dhabi oil monster Adnoc.All this focus on words? This reminded me of when I was working for the World Meteorological Organization and the IPCC report on 2007 when they seemed to spend an exhausting length of time on the wording before coming up with “unequivocal” in reference to human activities and their effect on climate change. I wondered at the time exactly how many people would understand the word “unequivocal”.Seems to me that if all these delegates from both sides of the argument spent more time on actually putting an effective plan in place and less time on squabbling about the words then we might be further down the line in the battle to combat global warming.Words from Anne Rasmussen, the top negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States group, epitomized the absurdity of this summit and its outcome: “It is not enough for us to reference the science and then make agreements that ignore what the science is telling us we need to do.”The University of Manchester’s Professor Kevin Anderson commented resignedly: “No doubt there will be lots of cheering and back-slapping.”<p id="5

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779">There was.“But the physics will not care,” he pointed out with chilling logic. “As the new agreement locks in high levels of emissions for years to come, so the temperature will continue to rise.”Meanwhile lurking unnoticed amongst recent climate related news — like a Nile Crocodile at a river crossing — was the ominously sounding <a href="https://global-tipping-points.org/">Global Tipping Points report</a>, which warned that the planet was on the verge of crossing five of these points of no return.These include melting ice in Greenland and Antarctic, the relentless thawing of permafrost, coral reef demise due to warming oceans, and disruption to currents in the North Atlantic.“Tipping points in the Earth system pose threats of a magnitude never faced by humanity,” Tim Lenton, from the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute was reported in The Guardian as saying.“They can trigger devastating domino effects, including the loss of whole ecosystems and capacity to grow staple crops, with societal impacts including mass displacement, political instability and financial collapse.”With experience in the world of meteorology and climatology (former communications officer for the World Meteorological Organization) and in making some of their complexities more palatable for a wider audience, my intention with this blog is to deep dive into the world of climate change, to promote more understanding, more discussion, more urgency, and seek out more practical solutions. I will be publishing original content every week. Please feel free to share and comment. I know that climate change remains a controversial subject for some but, in the end, I’m working to be positive so if you disagree, which is your right, keep it polite and try to back up your opinions with verifiable facts.</article></body>

COP28 Saves Planet From Global Warming With a Few Well-Chosen Words!

Photo by Magdalena Kula Manchee on Unsplash

“WE UNITED. WE ACTED. WE DELIVERED” reads the triumphant headline on the COP28 website after the climate change summit concluded in the UAE earlier this week and everyone had flown home.

Phew! It was touch and go there for a while but we made it in the end. Who would have thunk it? Our “globally boiling” planet, saved in the nick of time by a state-run oil company that always had our best interests at heart, and all that was required were a few choice words.

And these mighty and decisive words are?

“Transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner . . .”

“Transition away” . . . Not the clearer and more robust “phase out” of fossil fuels, a term that was rejected by oil producing states towards the end of the summit and, more importantly, not an actual plan to end use of the major causes of global warming, with timetable, steps and serious punishments for transgressors.

Here are some more words: “It’s like promising your doctor that you will ‘transition away’ from doughnuts after being diagnosed with diabetes,” Professor Michael Mann, climatologist and geophysicist at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Guardian newspaper.

Meanwhile Dr Magdalena Skipper, editor in chief of the science journal Nature, wasn’t mincing words either: “The science is clear — fossil fuels must go. World leaders will fail their people and the planet unless they accept this reality,” she said.

Other aghast scientists were reported as stating that the phrasing was a “tragedy for the planet and our future”, a “death certificate” for the planet and, perhaps the most depressing of all, “a dream outcome for the fossil fuel industry”.

Back to the original wording. What about this mysterious “in energy systems”? What does that mean? As it turns out, it means there’s a massive loophole because it doesn’t cover fossil fuel use for trifles such as plastics, transport or agriculture.

No wonder COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber said that he was “proud of our historic achievement”, he’s also CEO of Abu Dhabi oil monster Adnoc.

All this focus on words? This reminded me of when I was working for the World Meteorological Organization and the IPCC report on 2007 when they seemed to spend an exhausting length of time on the wording before coming up with “unequivocal” in reference to human activities and their effect on climate change. I wondered at the time exactly how many people would understand the word “unequivocal”.

Seems to me that if all these delegates from both sides of the argument spent more time on actually putting an effective plan in place and less time on squabbling about the words then we might be further down the line in the battle to combat global warming.

Words from Anne Rasmussen, the top negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States group, epitomized the absurdity of this summit and its outcome: “It is not enough for us to reference the science and then make agreements that ignore what the science is telling us we need to do.”

The University of Manchester’s Professor Kevin Anderson commented resignedly: “No doubt there will be lots of cheering and back-slapping.”

There was.

“But the physics will not care,” he pointed out with chilling logic. “As the new agreement locks in high levels of emissions for years to come, so the temperature will continue to rise.”

Meanwhile lurking unnoticed amongst recent climate related news — like a Nile Crocodile at a river crossing — was the ominously sounding Global Tipping Points report, which warned that the planet was on the verge of crossing five of these points of no return.

These include melting ice in Greenland and Antarctic, the relentless thawing of permafrost, coral reef demise due to warming oceans, and disruption to currents in the North Atlantic.

“Tipping points in the Earth system pose threats of a magnitude never faced by humanity,” Tim Lenton, from the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute was reported in The Guardian as saying.

“They can trigger devastating domino effects, including the loss of whole ecosystems and capacity to grow staple crops, with societal impacts including mass displacement, political instability and financial collapse.”

With experience in the world of meteorology and climatology (former communications officer for the World Meteorological Organization) and in making some of their complexities more palatable for a wider audience, my intention with this blog is to deep dive into the world of climate change, to promote more understanding, more discussion, more urgency, and seek out more practical solutions. I will be publishing original content every week. Please feel free to share and comment. I know that climate change remains a controversial subject for some but, in the end, I’m working to be positive so if you disagree, which is your right, keep it polite and try to back up your opinions with verifiable facts.