The world needs to Cop on

THE wheels were really beginning to come off efforts to stem the climate crisis, over in Dubai this week. At the talking shop that is Cop28, governments were drifting further apart than ever, in a last-ditch bid to find solutions to what is becoming an increasingly urgent issue. As if the freak and unexpected flooding of recent months wasn’t enough to focus Irish minds, this week we had the equally freak ‘mini tornado’ that did incredible damage to a small village in the northwest. Meanwhile, other nations are suffering drought and blistering heat – two sides of the same coin of extreme weather that will soon become the norm for all of us. While there has been some agreement on a ‘transition’ to phasing out fossil fuels, there is still a long way to go.

But whoever thought that having an oil-rich nation hosting a conference which is seeking a reduction in fossil fuels was a good idea, is even more delusional than those expecting an agreement anytime soon.