The UN's annual climate meet-up Cop28 (Conference of the Parties) commences on 30 November hosted this year in the United Arab Emirates and runs for two weeks.

It will be opened by HM King Charles III and attended by 70,000 leaders and representatives of 198 countries - both rich and poor  from around the world including the EU, China and the US, the UK (in the form of Rishi Sunak) - and the Pope!

The target 1.5 degree C temperature limit in global temperatures above pre-industrial levels as agreed at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement is the maximum increase agreed by climate scientists around the world necessary to prevent the 'climate hell' the Secretary General of the UN is warning us about.

This year's global climate temperature is expected to be the hottest on record (currently 1.4 degrees C above historic levels) where we have been given clear indicators of what could be coming to affect us all with wildfires, flooding, droughts and other climate extremes around the world - including us here in the UK. Remember we have had wildfires on the edge of London and 40C temperature in places!

Without doubt the biggest factor driving the climate emergency is the burning of fossil fuels. The head of the global energy watchdog the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said that the oil and gas industry is facing a 'moment of truth' at Cop28. The natural climate phenomenon
El Nino will only add to the problems to be faced.

A recent report found that the state oil company of the United Arab Emirates, whose CEO, Sultan Al Jaber, will preside over Cop28, has the largest net zero-busting expansion plans of any company in the world. If this is indeed true, and with our own government planning to "max out" our North Sea oil and gas reserves, it is predicted that global temperatures could rise to 3C by the end of the century with almost inconceivably devastating effects on food security, health, the natural world, on poor and vulnerable communities and create political instability, wars and mass migration.

This doesn't paint a pretty picture of the future for our children and grandchildren. But there is still time to save ourselves and the planet from irreversible and devastating climate change. Personal actions are all effective BUT the really big changes necessary can only be achieved by governments and the fossil fuel industry. These actions are dramatically illustrated in a series of programmes on the climate crisis called 'Change Climate' available to stream on Channel 4. 'The Great Climate Fight' with Mary Portas, Hugh Fernley Whittingstall and Kevin McCloud is quite revealing about our current government and its complicity in the climate crisis.

With 'ordinary and concerned' people being arrested on a daily basis demanding that there be no more new oil and gas, the question to ask is who are the real criminals in this crisis?

Note on Image: 

'Just Stop Oil' is probably the most high profile of many climate action groups protesting at the moment objecting to new oil and gas fields being developed

Sustainable Crediton Climate Action Team
(formerly Crediton Cop26 Group)