By Dr Ioannis Tsipouridis
July was a month of climate reckoning.
Even for sceptics.
The UN General Secretary decided to shift level in his narrative and said that the “’Era of global boiling has arrived”, hoping to wake up some of the people convening behind closed doors in board rooms.
July was a month of climate reckoning.
Even for sceptics.
The UN General Secretary decided to shift level in his narrative and said that the “’Era of global boiling has arrived”, hoping to wake up some of the people convening behind closed doors in board rooms.
After all, you can’t ignore record temperatures of above 45 and 50 for days in a row, in so many places far apart on the planet.
Well, apparently you can.
If your name is Rishi Sunak and you are the Prime Minister of an ex-empire, you can ignore anything that does not suit your agenda and the agenda of your friends.
And not only ignore the numerous manifestations of science’s predictions but also go back on your own – your country’s – hot (air) pledges about tackling climate change and achieving net zero and blah blah blah, as Greta would say.
The year of the oil COP 28 when we were all wondering what tricks the oil President of COP 28 and the fossil fuel lobby will come up with to cloud the climate agenda and delay taking any real action, Sunak envious of the mythical Ephialtes opted for this unspeakable act:
Rishi Sunak hopes to extract as much oil and gas from the North Sea as possible, No 10 has said, as it announced 100-plus new drilling licenses
But he didn’t stop there. He went all the way playing the Fossil industry card: Carbon Capture ad Storage, by announcing:
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak committed up to £20bn for early deployment of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), for Harbour Energy’s Viking project in the Humber and the Acorn project in Scotland.
For those who are not familiar with the technology, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has failed to prove its worth project after project and the only reason it continues to attract support is because it has the backing of the fossil fuel industry, which will invest in anything that gives hope of continuing emitting CO2.
Let us also not forget that as recently as 2021 IEA, the Bastian of the energy establishment declared in its flagship report “Net Zero by 2050”, that
“On the IEA’s pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050, there is no investment in new coal, oil or gas supply.”
And a minor detail from that milestone event:
“The UK Presidency welcomes the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s report and its valuable contribution to informing our collective power sector commitment”.
With an amazing basket of solutions – nature based solutions – to chose from, UK’s Prime Minister, ignoring his country’s commitment, made the worst possible one.
With the world on fire from Canada to the Mediterranean and temperatures parked at 50 Celsius Sunak chose to literally throw more oil to the fires.
In essence it is like weaponizing climate change and turning it into a weapon of mass destruction against ourselves.
The outcome is easy to predict.
What is the worst that can happen to him? Not be reelected
What is the worst that can happen to all of us?
More and more of what happened last month.
This has got to stop!