All options needed as world leaders tackle climate

What a startling contrast of two articles we had in today’s Australian. The first one showed how the increasingly dangerous and idealistic UN at COP27 is working on recommendations to end coal, oil and gas production and exploration by OECD countries within the next eight years, without mentioning China (“Bogus net zero pledges: ‘The sham must end’, 9/11). Notwithstanding the resultant weakening of their economies, the West is still expected by the UN to undertake massive transfer payments to developing countries to make up for the former’s historical use of fossil fuels. The mind boggles.

The second article shows how major gas producer Santos, forced to conform to the climate change zeitgeist, is developing a carbon capture and storage business alongside its traditional oil and gas production (“Behind Santos’ push to become a green gas giant”), noting that 80 per cent of the world’s energy still came from coal, oil and gas and that carbon capture and storage was the most effective means of transitioning to a low-emission world.

The pragmatic Santos strategy further highlights the major weakness of the Labor government’s strategy, which is ideo­logically fixated on subsidised renewables when the energy market should be opened up to allow all technologies, including nuclear power and coal and gas with CCS, to freely compete.

Ron Hobba, Camberwell, Vic

The climate-change denialists, who say “nothing to see here” because the Earth has experienced these phenomena in the past are not paying attention to the frequency and severity of weather events and the speed at which change is occurring. They persist in the face of the evidence from an overwhelming majority of climate scientists around the world, whose measurements and reports are regularly presented, reviewed and published. To take just one area of study: glaciers.

Melting has been observed over time (since the 1970s) thanks to satellites. The process is accelerating at a faster rate than previously anticipated. Meltwater from ice sheets and glaciers flows into the ocean causing a rise in sea levels. Ice also reflects sunlight/heat better than land or water, so with less ice the Earth absorbs more energy and heats up faster. Kiribati is the first country to be impacted by sea-level rise. It is less than 2m above the conventional sea level and is experiencing flooding, water contamination and food scarcity. Our region, including Australia, is thought to be among the most vulnerable to sea-level rise on the planet.

Fiona Colin, Malvern, Vic

In the past, the leaders of various religious cults would predict the coming of the end of the world, only to be greatly disappointed. In these modern times, predicting the end of the world has become a major preoccupation of the followers of a new religion. I predict they, too, will eventually be disappointed.

Maris Dabars, Murray Bridge, SA

Disappointingly, your correspondents chime a chorus of denial and ridicule the serious nature of anthropogenic climate change and the role of carbon dioxide as a driver (“First World elderly and poor the sacrificial lambs of COP”, 9/11).

We are each entitled to an opinion, but is it too much to ask that these opinions be substantiated by some form of evidence? Graphs of increasing CO concentration in the atmosphere and rising average global temperatures, published by reputable scientific organisations such as NASA, demonstrate the clear alignment between the two.

Using a dataset of 88,125 climate-related peer-reviewed publications, researchers last year concluded that scientific consensus on the presence of contemporary human-­induced climate change now exceeds 99 per cent.

This masthead reports the 15,000 who died from heat in ­Europe, and the severe drought and famine gripping Kenya and Somalia, as being directly related to climate change. Now is the time for moral compassion as ­humanity grapples to respond to the crisis at hand.

Amy Hiller, Kew, Vic

The Prime Minister is about to fly to various summit meetings throughout the world and Chris Bowen is attending the COP27 summit. Have they not heard of Zoom meetings, which would surely have a lower carbon footprint?

Sheila Duke, Balmoral, Qld