Climate Horizons 13 (COP28: Worlds of Problems and Possibilities)
News, Views and Solutions in an All-of-the-Above World
Greetings!
We’ve vetted and selected a range of worthwhile climate-related news and information and resources for you.
This week we continue to focus heavily on COP28 in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. COP28 began the day we sent out our previous newsletter last Thursday, has a scheduled break today, and will continue until December 12.
Worth repeating from last week (skip ahead if you saw it already):
“COP” is a catchy acronym, and in this case, is almost always used instead of what it stands for, which is “Conference of the Parties.” The “28” denotes that this is the 28th annual COP. The Conference of the Parties, or COP, is the main decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
As is the case every year, this year’s UN climate summit is certainly the world's most important climate meeting, even amid many concerns about what may or may not be meaningful addressed or accomplished, and a few swirling controversies, such as:
• The influence of major fossil fuel interests (who now send hundreds of representatives) • The choice of a major oil producing nation as the location this year • The appointment of Sultan al Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, as COP28 president, and • Recent revelations that Sultan al Jaber has used — and may still be using — his position as president of the talks to promote his company’s fossil fuel interests in meetings with the leaders or representatives of various nations.
Over the first week of COP28, there have been more controversies to add to that list. Many of the concerns and much of the criticism is warranted (you will find some below), but…
…given the magnitude of the threat to human society and all life on earth, any gathering of tens of thousands of national leaders, climate scientists, activists, business executives and others to learn and talk and perhaps make key decisions about our climate crisis is vitally important.
COP is the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change. Virtually every country in the world sends representatives. What happens at COP matters!
More than 70,000 people, from every country on the planet, are attending COP28 and many side events and meetings.
We’ve selected a mix of links for you, from a variety of sources and perspectives.
“The 1.5-degree limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce. Not abate. Phaseout — with a clear timeframe aligned with 1.5 degrees C.”
— UN Secretary-General António Guterres (last Friday in Dubai)
Also shared last week, here is the official COP28 UAE website.
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Below are links to a good number of selected articles and columns about COP28. These articles and columns include everything from basic background reporting to detailed hopes, concerns and criticisms. (Click here to find the links we shared about COP28 as it got underway last week.)
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4 News (December 4, 2023)
‘We can’t afford for COP28 to be a bust’ says climatologist Professor Michael Mann
…climatologist Professor Michael Mann, who, along with other scientists, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work on climate change.
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HEATMAP (December 1, 2023)
What I Misunderstood About COP28
I thought the conference would be a pseudo-event. I didn’t think it would be like this.
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CNN (December 6, 2023)
These small words could make or break the global climate summit
The thorniest issue at the global climate summit in Dubai is clear: Fossil fuels. More precisely, the role they should play in our rapidly warming future. As negotiators thrash out the terms of core agreements that will emerge from COP28, the big question is whether countries will ultimately agree to a phase-out of oil, gas and coal, a phase-down — or neither. The difference between phase-out and phase-down sounds like semantics, but the ability of the world to hold back catastrophic climate change may hinge on it.
RELATED:
Covering Climate Now (December 7, 2023)
“Phase Out” vs. “Phase Down” — and the Future of COP
“The 1.5-degree limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said last Friday in Dubai. “Not reduce. Not abate. Phaseout — with a clear timeframe aligned with 1.5 degrees C.”
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CNN (December 4, 2023)
Climate summit leader defends controversial comments that alarmed scientists and sent shockwaves through meeting
Sultan Al Jaber, the oil executive who is leading the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, sent shockwaves through the gathering by claiming in the days before the UN-backed talks that there is “no science” that says phasing out fossil fuels is necessary to keep global warming under a critical threshold — comments Al Jaber said were misinterpreted.
Al Jaber held a surprise news conference Monday where he fiercely defended his commitment to climate science, after an increasing number of scientists and advocates expressed alarm at the comments and concern for the direction of the talks.
The future role of fossil fuels is one of the most controversial issues countries are grappling with at the COP28 climate summit. While some are pushing for a “phase-out,” others are calling for the weaker language of a “phase-down.” Scientific reports have shown that fossil fuels must be rapidly slashed to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius — the goal of the Paris climate agreement, and a threshold above which scientists warn it will be more difficult for humans and ecosystems to adapt.
RELATED:
The Guardian (December 3, 2023)
Cop28 president says there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels
Al Jaber says phase-out of coal, oil and gas would take world ‘back into caves.’
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Reuters (December 4, 2023) by Valerie Volcovici
Al Gore slams COP28 climate summit host UAE, says its emissions soared
Climate advocate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Sunday slammed the UAE - host of the COP28 climate summit - saying its position as overseer of international negotiations on global warming this year was an abuse of public trust.
“This industry is way more effective at capturing politicians than they are at capturing emissions.”
— Al Gore speaking out about the controversy surrounding COP28, with Sultan Al Jaber, an oil CEO, acting as president of the UN climate summit
NY Times (Dec. 5, 2023, Updated Dec. 7, 2023)
It’s Big Oil vs. Science at the U.N. Climate Summit
As negotiators work to agree on a final text, attention has turned to a fundamental question: Will the talks call for a phaseout of fossil fuels?
With fresh promises to cut methane and billions of dollars in new commitments to help poor countries adapt to a warming planet, a sense of momentum and optimism pervaded the first days of the United Nations climate summit in Dubai.
Now comes the hard part. Five days into the two-week conference, known as COP28, the talks have become consumed by an intense debate over the future of fossil fuels.
The president of the event is under fire for having suggested that it is not necessary to phase out oil, gas and coal, the burning of which is dangerously heating the planet. At least 1,300 fossil fuels lobbyists, a record, are participating in the talks. And Saudi Arabia has said it opposes any agreement that calls for an end to fossil fuels — significant because, under U.N. rules, any single country can scuttle a deal.
At the same time, scientists, activists and dozens of world leaders are growing more adamant in their calls for a rapid reduction in oil, gas and coal, arguing that, without a pivot away from fossil fuels, the planet is destined for catastrophe. Agreement on a phaseout would be historic; Past U.N. climate deals have shied away from even including the words “fossil fuels.”
RELATED:
CNN (December 7, 2023)
Controversy hangs over climate talks as countries weigh whether to ditch fossil fuels
The first week of the COP28 climate talks has come to an end not with the euphoria of the first days of breakthrough announcements, but with growing anxiety about whether the world will do anything about the main cause of the climate crisis: fossil fuels.
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Independent (December 4, 2023)
COP28 admits that climate change is a health crisis
Health has made it onto the agenda of a UN climate conference, and health advocates attending the Conference of Parties-COP28 in Dubai said the topic was long overdue for discussion as climate inaction is costing lives and impacting health every single day.
RELATED:
The Lancet (November 22, 2023)
Further delays in tackling greenhouse gas emissions at COP28 will be an act of negligence
Driven mostly by the relentless burning of fossil fuels, the continuous rise in greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution has pushed the climate to an unprecedented level of destabilisation. Climate change is causing irreversible human harms, and putting the survival of millions of people at risk, as the latest report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change underlines.
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NPR (December 5, 2023) by Camila Domonoske and Julia Simon
Oil firms are out in force at the climate talks. Here's how to decode their language
Just a few years ago, oil companies said they felt unwelcome at United Nations climate talks. Not this year. This year's climate conference is taking place in the United Arab Emirates, a major oil and gas producing country that's looking to increase its oil production. And the oil industry has a big platform at the talks.
The oil cartel OPEC has its own pavilion at this meeting, known as COP28, and giant oil companies are playing a prominent role, to the dismay of climate activists. So what are oil producers saying in their pledges and statements about climate change? And what does it actually mean?
RELATED:
HEATED (December 5, 2023)
It’s official: COP28 has more fossil fuel lobbyists than ever
There are 2,456 fossil fuel interests at this year's U.N. climate summit, nearly four times more than any past year, according to a new analysis.
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Eco Watch (December 4, 2023)
COP28: Nearly 120 Nations Agree to Triple World’s Renewables Output
“It is only half the solution. The pledge can’t greenwash countries that are simultaneously expanding fossil fuel production,” said Tina Stege, Marshall Islands climate envoy, as reported by Reuters.
Room must be made for renewables, argued Kaisa Kosonen, head of the COP28 delegation for Greenpeace, as AFP reported. “The future will be powered by solar and wind, but it won’t happen fast enough unless governments regulate fossil fuels out of the way,” Kosonen said.
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The Atlantic Magazine (November 30, 2023) by Zoë Schlanger
Something Big Just Happened at COP
Wealthy countries might finally pay for the climate change they caused.
Today, on the opening day of COP28, the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, the host country pushed through a decision that wasn’t expected to happen until the last possible minute of the two-week gathering: the creation and structure of the “loss and damage” fund, which will source money from developed countries to help pay for climate damages in developing ones. For the first time, the world has a system in place for climate reparations.
The fund has been a goal of developing nations for years; its aim is to get financial support for the countries that suffer the brunt of climate-change disasters despite having had little part in causing them. Nearly every country on Earth has now adopted the fund, though the text is not technically final until the end of the conference, officially slated for Dec. 12.
RELATED:
The Guardian (November 30, 2023)
Agreement on loss and damage deal reached on first day of Cop28 talks
A landmark deal to help the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries pay for the irreversible impacts of climate disaster was agreed on the first day of the Cop28 UN summit.
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Atmos (December 6, 2023)
How Amy Westervelt Sees Through the Smokescreen of COP28
This year’s climate summit has been marred by misinformation and fossil fuel interests. Maybe it’s time to rethink the system.
This is not the first time lobbyists and petrostates have seized power at COP. It’s been that way from the beginning. But after decades of impunity, they’ve become more brazen. She joins Atmos to discuss what progress can be made with them at the helm, how to level-headedly interpret the wins from COP28, and whether it’s time to envisage a new, unsullied system of climate decision-making.
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NY Times (November 30, 2023)
Disinformation Is One of Climate Summit’s Biggest Challenges
Online influencers, fossil fuel companies and some of the countries attending COP28 have nourished a feedback loop of falsehoods.
As the world’s leaders gather this week at a major summit to discuss ways to address the effects of global warming, one of the greatest obstacles they face is disinformation.
Among the biggest sources of false or misleading information about the world’s weather, according to a report released this week: influential nations, including Russia and China, whose diplomats will be attending. Others include the companies that extract fossil fuels and the online provocateurs who make money by sharing claims that global warming is a hoax.
They spread diverse and frequently debunked falsehoods: Humans are not responsible for climate change; recent wildfires were enabled by arson rather than hotter and drier conditions; the world is cooling; oil and gas giants are leading the charge toward carbon neutrality; and warnings about the environment are an excuse for authoritarian elites to destabilize the developing world and force everyone into lockdown and onto a diet of insects and lab-grown food.
Their efforts have already significantly eroded the public pressure and political will needed to prevent a dire future for the planet, experts said.
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Want to know more? A web search on “COP28” will results in thousands of links.
“I have a special message for fossil-fuel producers and their enablers,
scrambling to expand production and raking in monster profits:
If you cannot set a credible course for net-zero, with 2025 and 2030 targets covering all your operations, you should not be in business.
Your core product is our core problem.
We need a renewables revolution, not a self-destructive fossil fuel resurgence.”
— UN Secretary-General António Guterres
• OTHER SELECTED NEWS and INFORMATION:
A few recent news items, usually in the form of a headline and link, along with a short description or excerpt. So much news out there, but we’re only including a couple of item in this section this week, due to the amount of COP28 content above.
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The Atlantic (December 4, 2023) by Zoë Schlanger
THE CLIMATE CAN’T AFFORD ANOTHER TRUMP PRESIDENCY
His approach to the environment: ignore it.
The administration’s goal was to bury the issue of climate change. Nothing was done to address it; the very mention of it was knocked from the national agenda—and, by extension, the international agenda. If Trump returns to office, he will surely double down on this strategy.
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The Engineer (December 6, 2023)
Tipping Points Report shows humanity on ‘disastrous trajectory’
Humanity is on the verge of triggering at least five major tipping points which could see the collapse of ice sheets, ecosystems and food production, according to a new report.
Led by Exeter University and featuring the work of over 200 researchers, the Global Tipping Points Report claims that humanity is currently on a ‘disastrous trajectory’ and that existing global governance is not equipped for the scale of the challenge. The report is based on an assessment of 26 negative Earth system tipping points, where incremental changes build to eventually trigger transformative events in nature and society.
RELATED:
The Guardian (December 5, 2023)
Earth on verge of five catastrophic climate tipping points, scientists warn: Humanity faces ‘devastating domino effects’ including mass displacement and financial ruin as planet warms
• GOOD NEWS and SOLUTIONS:
One or two or a few items that highlight either real and notable progress being made somewhere or information about a few of the many solutions that are out there and available today.
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Electrek (December 5, 2023)
‘Historic: US EVs skyrocket past 1 million sales, up 50.7% YOY
Year-to-date US EV sales have surpassed 1 million – the first time EV sales exceeded that threshold in a single sales year. The National Automobile Dealer Association (NADA) reports that through 11 months of 2023, BEV sales totaled 1,007,984 – an increase of 50.7% year-over-year.
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REUTERS (December 5, 2023)
US wind power generation on course to surpass coal
U.S. electricity generation from wind power is on course to surpass coal-fired electricity generation, potentially by 2026, as wind supply growth expands at a record pace just as coal-fired generation is cut across the country.
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Electrek (December 1, 2023) by Jennifer Mossalgue
A California lake has enough lithium to power 375 million EVs
California’s infamous Salton Sea has been a known hotbed of lithium for years, but no one had a sense of how much “white gold” was found there. Now a new study quantifies that, and it’s impressive: The huge underground reserve of scorching hot brine located underneath the lakebed contains enough lithium to build batteries for 375 million electric vehicle batteries, making it one of the largest lithium brine deposits in the world.
A new study from the US Department of Energy released this week is the first to quantify how much valuable metal is down there, and it’s a lot more than previously thought.
RELATED:
Palm Springs Desert Sun (November 30, 2023) by Erin Rode
Study: Salton Sea area could produce enough lithium for 375 million electric car batteries
• THINGS YOU CAN DO:
For this section, this week we’re just sharing a link to a letter you can sign, sponsored by the The Climate Reality Project, calling on leaders of the G20 group of major economies to end all subsidies for fossil fuel companies making billions driving climate devastation.
TELL G20 LEADERS: END THE $1 TRILLION+ HANDOUT FOR FOSSIL FUELS
We know how to stop rising temperatures: Phase out all fossil fuels – as fast and fairly as possible. So why are governments giving massive handouts to the fossil fuel industry?
Despite public pledges to slash emissions, in 2022 alone, governments gave away an estimated $1.3 trillion to the very industry that brought us climate change. That’s why we’re calling on leaders of the G20 group of major economies to end all subsidies for fossil fuel companies making billions driving climate devastation.
It's the critical first step in phasing out fossil fuels. And a first step to a better future for all of us. End the fossil fuel handouts now.
• INTERNET RESOURCES & SOCIAL MEDIA CONNECTIONS:
There are a lot of great resources on the web and social media — people, groups and pages. In each newsletter, we suggest one or two you might want to check out (on the web or Facebook or Threads or Instagram or any number of other sites).
This time we are pleased to share a new and extremely interesting site and resource called Climate Trace. Please check it out, and take a good look around.
Climate TRACE is a non-profit coalition of organizations building a timely, open, and accessible inventory of exactly where greenhouse gas emissions are coming from.
Our Goal
We make meaningful climate action faster and easier by harnessing technology to track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with unprecedented detail and speed, delivering information that is relevant to all parties working to achieve net-zero global emissions.
AND:
We’re harnessing technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to analyze over 90 trillion bytes of data from more than 300 satellites, more than 11,000 sensors, and numerous additional sources of emissions information from all over the world. The result is a groundbreaking approach to emissions monitoring… one that is independent, transparent, and timely.
ON THE WEB: Climate Trace
ON LINKED IN: Climate Trace
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