First things first. I was asked to participate in this debate, as I'd been arrested taking part in this protest with @ScientistsX at @beisgovuk. Our demand was simple & science led, that the UK end all NEW oil and gas exploration.
@MuellerTadzio@wiebkemarie@MariusHasenheit@sustentioEU After years of continued delay we have squandered our carbon budgets. This rewrites the chronology of climate change from long-term gradual reduction to urgent & radical emissions cuts!
So, demanding has it become to still meet our internationally agreed climate targets that most models now assume huge amounts of carbon dioxide removal as well as rapid reductions in fossil fuel use will have to occur.
But most experts in this topic, such as @KevinClimate & @Peters_Glen, warn that this is a risky gamble as it is very possible that these negative emissions technologies will NOT work at scale.
In a report commissioned by @AlokSharma_RDG ahead of #COP26 - @fbirol, Executive Director of the @IEA, said there "can be no new investment in oil, gas and coal"!
"World governments plan to produce more than twice the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5C"
12/n
The conclusion is clear. It is governments (formed of politicians like @KwasiKwarteng) approving new fossil fuel developments who are the "dangerous radicals".
"Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness" !!! 13/n
None of the major oil companies examined by @PriceofOil come anywhere close to aligning their business plans with our climate targets.
They are not to be trusted. 14/n
@PriceofOil In fact new research by @Global_Witness & @RystadEnergy found that the 20 largest oil and gas companies look set to invest almost $1,000,000,000,000 (a trillion 💲!) in developing NEW oil and gas over the next decade! 🤯
Oil and gas companies (and apparently government ministers also) are resorting to endless #Greenwash to try and carry on with business-as-usual in the face of huge public demand for #ClimateAction.
The #Greenwash comprises of a whole arsenal of weaponised discourses used to try to delay #ClimateAction that we need to look out for. You'll see it in the media everywhere!
When you're ready to move on from despair at the naked power & corruption, remember (as former IPCC co-chair Prof. Robert Watson, reminds us "we have the technologies we need to transition from fossil fuels today" - we just need governments to act!
I’m thrilled to announce @TristramWyatt, @CharlieJGardner & my new paper in @RSocPublishing 'Open Science'
In this paper we set out our case for responsible scientific activism in an era of planetary emergency.
A short🧵
2/ We argue that scientists & scientific institutions can have the maximum amount of influence by lending their support to social movements pressing for action, joining as active participants & considering civil disobedience.
3/ Einstein once said ‘Those with the privilege to know have a duty to act’.
But act how?
If scientists want to be more than chroniclers of a preventable tragedy, and to see science-informed policies enacted, we need to seriously reexamine our theories of change.
One thing I wished more people understood about climate change is that we have not yet experienced any where near the full consequences of the warming we've already caused.
Here's a 🧵 explaining why...
2/ As the planet warms we see extreme events become far more common, a heatwave that used to have a 1% chance of happening in any year, becomes a 10% chance.
That is the return period is reduced massively.
3/ These changes are very sudden and dramatic.
As this study by the @metoffice shows "we find that events that would occur twice a century in the early 2000s are now expected to occur twice a decade"
Let's pause & reflect a minute about what this shocking picture of @GretaThunberg 's arrest tells us about the current state of #climate politics.
A short 🧵on some key lessons we can take from this image
2/ What a difference 6 years makes!
In many ways climate politics is in a very different place to how it was when @GretaThunberg first started her strikes outside the Swedish parliament in the summer of 2018 to try and put the #ClimateCrisis on the agenda
3/ Largely as a result of protest movements #climate has now entered mainstream debate.
And the stakes are clearer than ever.
Following the latest @IPCC_CH report in 2022 @UN Secretary General @antonioguterres made clear we are faced with a 🚨"Code Red for humanity"