Tuesday, 9 January 2024

Climate Thinking Disconnects?

2024, and James Hansen (a former 'top' NASA scientist) notes that the 1.5C threshold will be passed this year. He's very likely to be correct (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/08/global-temperature-over-1-5-c-climate-change). The 1.5C 'threshold' was, of course, the somewhat arbitrary 'safe' increase in global temperature (above pre-Industrial levels), 'pledged' by 196 'parties' at the UN's 2015 Cop21 in Paris. It was actually only an educated guess, in terms of what they thought the human population could deal with and was achievable. 'Joined-up thinking' and the 'climate crisis', however, never seem to get together. Wars are currently raging, both in the Middle East and Europe, massively adding to already record 'greenhouse gas' emissions. For example, the emissions produced by a month's fighting in Gaza, dwarf the annual emissions of several small, climate-vulnerable countries (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change). The UN is clearly aware of this, although it seems a mere footnote in their considerations. However, 'hot-foot' from staging its Cop 28 meeting in the United Arab Emirates, the UN schedules Cop29 in Azerbaijan (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/08/cop29-host-azerbaijan-to-hike-gas-output-by-a-third-over-next-decade). Azerbaijan is, reportedly, intent on boosting its already substantial sales of 'natural' gas by a third over the next ten years. I can't see any logic such choices, unless they think such meetings might embarass the hosts.

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