Steve Hurley writes the Explaining Science blog, and we have featured his work irregularly over the years. He has been writing this week about COP 27 (as he did about COP 26). His post begins:
“Over the next few weeks much of the world’s media will be focused on Sharm El Sheik in Egypt, where the United Nations Climate Change conference is taking place. My own view is that our chances of significantly reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere over the next 10-15 years or so don’t look particularly promising – mainly because there is the competing objective of individual countries seeking to maximise their short-term economic growth. I have re-blogged my post from 2021 on this topic. Since writing this global carbon dioxide levels have risen a further 2 parts per million.”
And this is how the original started:
“In early November 2021 much of the world’s media was focussed on the Glasgow Climate Change Conference (also known as COP26). Its key objectives were to get individual states to commit to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, to end deforestation and to plan their move away from fossil fuel towards greener sources of energy. The overall goal being to reduce the global temperature rise which has happened over the last 100 years or so as a result of human activity. Much has been written in the media about the outcome of the conference, therefore I won’t repeat it here. The statement by the UN Secretary General gives a good overview.
Sadly, agreements made at Previous UN conferences to reduce greenhouse gases. In particular the Kyoto protocol in 1997 and the Paris agreement of 2015 have achieved very little. Although the COP26 target of limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.5oC from pre-industrial levels is claimed by some to be “still within reach”, it seems very unlikely it will be achieved. A recent article in Nature made the case that, even if the pledges announced in the Glasgow Climate Summit are implemented, average global temperatures will still rise by 2.4oC by the year 2100. An article by a group of scientists who call themselves the Climate Action Tracker concluded that, based upon current behaviour, the likely global temperature rise from pre-industrial levels will be between 2oC and 3.6oC by the end of the century. …”
As COP 27 draws to its conclusion, you can carry on reading here.