Now COP has been put to bed for another year here is a quick round up of reactions to the Conference.
This is how awful 2023 has been.
Bill Mcquire, Climate Scientist and author of Hothouse Earth tweeted
Prof Stephan Rahmstorf (Head of Earth System Analysis @ Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research & professor of Physics of the Oceans @ Potsdam University.) summed it up by sharing a cartoon.
Climate Scientists Kevin Anderson and Ben Sanderson thought the Chair of IPCC made a big mistake by saying we have 6 years of Carbon budget left to stay within 1.5C of global warming. To me, all 3 of the scenarios on the graph look extremely unlikely when as a global community we are still increasing fossil fuel use.
Vanessa Nakate, climate activist from Uganda complained the Summit has left the Global South without the finance it desperately needs to mitigate climate change.
George Monbiot thinks the COP system is utterly and fatally crocked.
He examines alternative voting systems like the Borda Count in this article.
Rupert Read points out in this article in Resilience that “CoP28 did NOT even actually ‘call on’ countries to transition away from fossil fuels. They only called on countries to transition away from fossil fuels in the generation of electricity and of heat for heating purposes. (This helps explain the otherwise-odd way in which the key part of the agreement is constructed: talking about achieving full transition in ‘energy-systems’ and then going on to speak about having more EVs etc, without asserting that there must be a full transition away from petrol cars etc.)
” CoP28 did not ‘call on’ countries to transition away from fossil fuels in their use in transportation, and certainly did not call on them to effect such transition in heavy industry (eg chemicals or steel production), or in the food system. Only in the production and transmission of ‘energy’: I.e. basically electricity (plus heating).
And there is in any case a big loophole left for the continued use of fossil gas as a ‘transition fuel’, and for the unicorn of ‘carbon capture and storage’.”
Locally Labour MP Olivia Blake spoke at the Global Justice Rally in Sheffield promising to back the Climate and Ecology Bill and saying we must cut emissions to keep within 1.5C of warming. She spoke about the need for Climate Justice, saying that the richest 1% are responsible for the same emissions as two-thirds of the world’s population. But she failed to mention that Labour’s policies won’t change that as they have no plans to increase taxation on the rich. Their plans to boost economic growth, will, if they are successful, increase consumption and emissions still further. Their failure to say they will reverse the new oil and gas licences such as Rosebank, recently granted by the Conservatives shows they have no real ambition to combat the fossil fuel industry.
Green Councillor Christina Gilligan wrote to the Star saying “Shell made £32 billion and BP £23 billion in profit last year while energy bills rose and people found it difficult to heat their homes. The top 20 fossil fuel firms are responsible for one-third of all emissions. They are raking in billions while many households across the UK are struggling to keep warm this winter.”
Green policies such as a wealth tax would really be transformational. They would introduce an emergency tax package which would mean polluting companies and the very richest 1% of households contribute more, to fund a nationwide insulation and renewable energy programme, creating warmer, more comfortable homes and bringing bills down for good.
As COP28 was an unmitigated disaster we all need to respond by building resilience in our local communities. We will all be severely affected by climate change in the future. We can expect food shortages, floods, droughts and extreme storms. Eventually, we can expect the breakdown of our society. We need to do much more now to prepare for it, and it is clear that Governments are not coming to help us.
4th Jan 2024
In addition to the above please read Jonathan Porritt’s blog on Cop28
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