What do you think happens when a UN climate conference is hosted by a petrostate — a country like Azerbaijan whose economy relies heavily on oil and gas?

Turning over a new leaf? Acknowledging it’s time for capitalism to end? Mea culpa?

Ha-ha, no.
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A senior official at the COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan appears to have used his role to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals.

A secret recording shows the chief executive of Azerbaijan's COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing "investment opportunities" in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.

"We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed," says Soltanov.

As well as being chief executive of COP29, Soltanov is also the deputy energy minister of Azerbaijan and is on the board of Socar, Azerbaijan's state energy firm.
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FULL STORY -- bbc.com/news/articles/crmzvdn9…
SEE ALSO -- globalwitness.org/en/campaigns…

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #COP29

If you're not already following Mastodon's resident climate historian ➡️ @Climatehistories ⬅️ you really should be.

The article linked below does a superb job in tracing the roots of modern environmental policy, from the World War II era until today. One section in particular stood out to me...
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Interestingly, from the 1940s through the 1970s, the world experienced a cooling period – a phenomenon largely due to sulphate aerosols released during the post-war industrial expansion. These particles reflected sunlight, temporarily cooling the Earth’s surface.

The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung also contributed by adding more aerosols that slightly reduced global temperature between 1958 and 1965.

Later research would reveal that greenhouse gas-induced warming would surpass aerosol cooling effects, setting the planet on a trajectory towards rapid warming.
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As you can see on the graph below, that temporary "aerosol cooling effect" certainly was overcome by capitalism's massive injection of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The heat keeps on going up now, and shows no sign of stopping.

FULL ARTICLE -- theclimatehistorian.substack.c…

#Politics #History #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

Heading from the article linked below: “Global greenhouse gas emissions at record levels.” It states we are now heading for at least 2.9°C of planetary heating by 2100, and possibly higher.

Although the numbers seen here might appear pessimistic to some, I’ll remind you that in the past, nearly all climate reports from the UN have been overly *optimistic* — failing to anticipate both the stubborn intransigence of our capitalist rulers and the unpredictably extreme response of Earth’s ecosystem to rapidly increasing levels of atmospheric carbon.

So I’d advise taking these temperature predictions with a grain of salt. It could turn out even worse than they expect…
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The latest UNEP report finds that human emissions of greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, nitrous oxide) reached a record 57.1bn tonnes in 2023. Global emissions grew 1.3% last year compared with 2022 levels – a rate notably faster than that over the prior decade.

Since the previous report, there have not been any notable changes in country pledges or policies – and global emissions continued to grow. This means that the emissions gap is wider than it was last year and the world is further off track from its climate goals.

The report states that a continuation of current policies would result in a 100% chance of exceeding 1.5C, a 97% chance of exceeding 2C and a 37% chance of exceeding 3C by 2100.

As the report notes, these numbers do *not* include many of the climate-related impacts on greenhouse gas emissions that are not a result of direct human interventions – such as the catastrophic Canadian wildfires in 2023. The ability of the biosphere to absorb a portion of human emissions is broadly expected to weaken under scenarios where the world does not rapidly reduce emissions.

Ultimately, the report highlights that the growing emissions gap reflects a lack of political will by countries to address emissions, rather than any fundamental constraint on the world’s ability to rapidly mitigate.
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FULL ARTICLE -- carbonbrief.org/unep-new-clima…

#History #Economics #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange

Global temperatures heating up faster than ever? Monster storms on the rise? Ecosystems destroyed and species going extinct?

Who cares about all that?!

It's time to invest in fossil fuels!!!
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Private equity firms are using US public sector workers’ retirement savings to fund fossil fuel projects pumping more than a billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere every year, according to an analysis.

They have ploughed more than $1 trillion into the energy sector since 2010, often buying into fossil fuel projects and, thanks to exemptions from many financial disclosures, operating them outside the public eye, the researchers say.

In many cases they are mortgaging workers’ futures by taking the money they have put away for old age and investing it in assets that risk serious damage to the climate.
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This is Business As Usual at its worst and most cynical. Outrageous. 😡

FULL ARTICLE -- theguardian.com/business/2024/…

#Economics #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual