The Arctic and the rest of the planet are heating up rapidly. Emissions are at a record high and fossil fuels in demand against the background of the energy crisis through Russia's war on Ukraine. Can 2023 bring a decisive shift in climate action?

The Arctic and the rest of the planet are heating up rapidly. Emissions are at a record high and fossil fuels in demand against the background of the energy crisis through Russia's war on Ukraine. Can 2023 bring a decisive shift in climate action?
My expectations for COP26 were not high. What we needed to come out of it was huge. But at the latest when the G20 leaders meeting in Rome ahead of the Glasgow conference failed to agree on a commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, it was looking highly unlikely that we would …
Continue reading Glasgow outcome: a COP-out for the Arctic – and the rest of the planet
Will Glasgow’s COP26 be remembered like Copenhagen (disaster) or Paris (breakthrough)? Is the climate glass half empty or half full? With more than half the negotiating time over, you could be forgiven for wondering if there are two parallel events going on. Depending on who you listen to, you could expect either. The mass demonstrations …
Continue reading Walk the talk? Can COP26 drive global transformation in time to save the planet?
The situation for planet earth was looking bleak. There was more of those dangerous heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere than ever before (and the records could go back way beyond the bounds of human history, looking into the earth, the oceans and the ice.) The planet had become a hothouse. The ice at the poles …
Top scientists working on the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic climate change issued an urgent message. The ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than ever, with catastrophic implications for global sea level and the world's weather – and only rapid and substantial action can slow the pace.
In Germany, where I live, the country's highest court, the Federal Constitutional Court, - unnoticed by much of the international media – recently issued a game-changing verdict in a case initiated by campaigners supported by groups including Fridays for Future and Greenpeace. The plaintiffs argued the government was failing to act on climate change. The …
Continue reading German High Court win for climate activists is good news for the Arctic
Heatwaves across the Arctic, smouldering wildfires, early melt onset in Greenland while corona holds up climate negotiations- summer 2020 takes us into unknown territory.