Everyone is still developing fossil fuels

As my recent blackboard talk emphasized, climate stability means fossil fuel abolition. Arguments to the contrary are cynical mechanisms to keep the petro profits coming, regardless of the consequences for the climate.

Unfortunately, despite endless talk about ‘net zero’ and ‘ensuring’ climate stability, essentially everybody is still chasing fossil fuels:

Remember: it takes decades for the full effects of our greenhouse gas pollution to be fully manifest. That means much worse is still to come, even if we start making the right choices, and a nightmare looms if we persist with our current approaches.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.

15 thoughts on “Everyone is still developing fossil fuels”

  4. Countries are ignoring commitments they made less than a year ago to shift away from fossil fuels and to provide aid to those most vulnerable to the climate crisis, a host of leading figures have admitted during a gloomy start to a major climate summit in New York.

    Al Gore, the former US vice-president, and John Kerry, the former US secretary of state and climate envoy, have led the condemnation of the largest greenhouse gas emitters, led by China and the US, for failing to follow a UN pact signed in Dubai by nearly 200 countries in December to “transition away” from oil, coal and gas.

    “We made an agreement in Dubai to transition away from fossil fuels,” said Kerry, who was the US lead climate negotiator at the time. “The problem? We aren’t doing that. We’re not implementing. The implications for everybody, and life on this planet, is gigantic.”

    Kerry, who in his previous position defended the US’s role as it became the world’s leading oil and gas producer under Joe Biden, admitted that the US needed to do more and said a pause placed on booming liquified natural gas export permits by the US president should remain.

    “The demand is what is crushing us right now,” Kerry said of the surge in gas exports. “I have to tell you all around the world people are falling short or not even trying. In Dubai almost 200 countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in a way that’s fair, equitable and orderly … and they [fossil fuel companies] are just plowing ahead, like it’s business as usual.”

    Asked to give oil and gas companies a grade in their efforts to transition to cleaner energy, Kerry said: “Is there a letter underneath Z?”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/23/new-york-climate-week-al-gore-john-kerry-condemn-fossil-fuels

  9. Former finance minister wonders if Canada should institute emissions cap after Trump victory

    https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/former-finance-minister-wonders-if-canada-should-institute-emissions-cap-after-trump-victory-1.7106058

    Following the re-election of former U.S. president Donald Trump, former finance minister Bill Morneau says the Canadian government should re-evaluate the timing of some cornerstone Liberal policies, such as the oil and gas sector emissions cap, in order to better align with its southern neighbour and its new incoming administration.
    “I would question whether putting caps on emissions right now is the right time,” Morneau said in an interview that aired Sunday on CTV’s Question Period, adding he would be “very careful” in thinking about the emissions cap, considering “the context of the broader North American relationship.”

  13. “We are sleepwalking into a dystopian future. The COP process has thus far failed, because it depends on the good faith of the major polluters, and instead of doing what is necessary for our common survival, they are literally adding fuel to the flames.”

    — Payam Akhavan, attorney for the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, “The UN climate summit ended in bitterness and accusations of betrayal. Now fears are growing for its future,” CNN

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/25/climate/cop-failures-future/index.html

  14. Coal use to reach new peak – and remain at near-record levels for years

    Spike in fossil fuel use a result of global gas crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/18/coal-use-to-reach-new-peak-and-remain-at-near-record-levels-for-years

    The world’s coal use is expected to reach a fresh high of 8.7bn tonnes this year, and remain at near-record levels for years as a result of a global gas crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    There has been record production and trade of coal and power generation from coal since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine inflated global gas market prices, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

    The IEA said the coal rebound, after a slump during the global Covid pandemic, means consumption of the fossil fuel is now on track to rise to a new peak of 8.77bn tonnes by the end of the year – and could remain at near-record levels until 2027.

    The Paris-based agency blamed power plants for the growing use of coal over the last year, particularly in China which consumes 30% more of the polluting fuel than the rest of the world put together.

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