COP28

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. It seemed like a quiet night near the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in Ukraine.Then suddenly a roar and the sound of flowing water.“We are now used to loud bangs and so I didn't think it was anything serious,” he said an inhabitant of the southern shore town of Nova Kakhovka.Within minutes water began flowing through a breach.And soon the passage crossing the Dnipro River was washed away.The dam built by the USSR in 1956, an important source of water for the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia, for the region's agriculture and for cooling the reactors of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, no longer existed while a massive wave of water began to flow downstream, causing a social, economic and ecological catastrophe. A torrent of water burst through a gaping hole in a dam on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine, fl...

From the assumption that COP28 will never lead to concrete solutions to the climate crisis, in Colombia, the Earth Social Conference, a sort of protest counter-conference which, however, could have some interesting implications.“We call on all climate 'realists' to decline our invitation to COP28 and join us for the first Earth Social Conference in December,” so over 50 environmental and human rights organizations from around the world have invited to participate at their social climate conference and asked to boycott the disputed Dubai summit.The objective is therefore an alternative conference, which is also broader in scope given that topics such as the conflict in the Middle East and new forms of colonization will be covered.The event is taking place in the Casanare area and will last until December 10th. Most of those who organized or will participate in the social conference in Colombia had already taken part in previous climate conferences, protesting or in the secti...

Despite the importance of the topic, the impact of militarization on the environment and climate was not at the center of the talks held at COP28, now concluded.If on the one hand some entities tried to bring the topic to the center of attention, on the other hand this was poorly taken into consideration by the delegates of the countries present.Yet, the two themes go hand in hand: war and environment are two sides of the same varied coin which is the global disaster.The war sector is one of the major factors impacting the environment.Awareness is growing thanks to the action of various movements, which are starting to deal with the problem of militarization under this lens, but the road is still long and now more than ever is the time to dissect the matter and address the topic as it should . During the Conference, some reality intervened to underline the decisive role of wars in climate change and environmental degradation.The UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Ch...

In the end, agreement was found at COP28.The 198 delegates to the United Nations Climate Conference they approved the so-called Global Stocktake, where, for the first time, we talk about the “transition away from fossil fuels”.The objective would be to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, but it is not made clear whether the definitive abandonment of gas and oil will actually have to take place by that date.In fact, the text did not include the expressions "phase out" or "phase down" (gradual elimination), which the oil-producing nations had opposed, starting with the host Saudi Arabia.The term chosen was instead the less demanding "transitioning away", to be implemented in an unspecified "fair, just and orderly" way.However, the wording adopted is overall vague and, above all, non-binding given the only and weak appeal "calls on", ("countries are called to...").«It is a historic agreement and I am proud of it...

The billionaire nuclear deals of the "philanthrocapitalist" Bill Gates have landed at the Conference of the Parties on climate change, COP 28, where an agreement was signed declaration to triple nuclear energy by 2050 (compared to 2020), so as to achieve the objectives of zero net emissions.The tycoon has long been involved in design of new nuclear reactors for the production of clean energy, through a company he founded in 2008, Terra Power, whose first power plant was located in Kemmerer, a town in Wyoming with less than 3 thousand inhabitants.The billionaire entrepreneur's goal is to "save the planet" from global warming by promoting the energy transition through new sources of clean energy.With this goal, the founder of Microsoft did not hesitate to influence government policies promoting its vision of the energy future at COP 28.The declaration to increase nuclear energy was signed, in fact, by 22 countries, including the USA, Great Britain and France, under ex...