Finally, it has been confirmed, climate change will make itself felt somewhere near you, wherever you are living on this planet. In the Global North, the extreme weather in winter has made itself felt through floods and unseasonal storms, while in summer, heat waves, droughts and bush fires are a stark comparison to our otherwise mild climate. The Global South is no different, with the weather affecting the livelihoods of those on the brink, damaging harvests, crops and livestock, thus leaving everyone’s food security and health teetering on the brink. Here in Europe, where climate change has been particularly making itself felt this week, the roasting temperatures registered are what scientists have long warned about. Heat waves, they say, are becoming hotter, longer lasting and more frequent. These can be classified as part of the same pattern as seen with the record-shattering hot spell endured by India and Pakistan in March. The role of humans can no longer be denied, as experts are becoming more vocal in claiming that, to a large extent, every weather fluctuation is a sign of human-induced climate change. “It is pure physics. We know how greenhouse gas molecules behave, we know there are more in the atmosphere, the atmosphere is getting warmer and that means we are expecting to see more frequent heat waves and hotter heat waves,” said Friederike Otto of Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute on climate change. The scientists have been laying it out bare, but governments and individuals are still failing the planet. By doing so, they have been, for whatever excuse, failing their loved ones and their countries. In recent years, advances in the discipline known as attribution science have permitted climatologists to calculate how much global heating contributes to individual weather events. March’s South Asian heatwave was, for example, calculated to have been 30 times more likely as a result of the 1.1 degrees Celsius of warming the planet has seen due to human activity since the mid-19th century. Another heatwave that shattered records, in North America in June 2021, which left hundreds dead as temperatures soared beyond 50 C in some places, would have been impossible without global warming. Three years ago, the heatwave that affected Europe was made 3 C hotter by climate change. All this led the World Meteorological Organization to say in a statement this week that: “The increase in the frequency, duration and intensity of these events is clearly linked to the observed warming of the planet that can be attributed to human activity.” Whatever the warnings emanating from Europe’s record temperatures this week — or in North Africa next week or in Asia the week after — the consensus among scientists and experts is that there is worse to come, depending on how quickly the global economy is decarbonized. So far, all the signs are that an economy led by lightly regulated corporations in rich and poor communities all over the world will not decarbonize quickly enough. This failure is maybe related to our systemic failure to tame our habits, our consumerist mindset and the mindsets of all those at the helm of the economic drive to exploit resources and make more profit. All the social responsibility and ecological protection drives that should be embedded in their activities seem not to measure up and are failing to produce a significantly reduced carbon footprint that could shield the planet from further warming. Decades of UN-led efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions to prevent climate change have fallen short of pushing governments to produce plans that stand the test of time. As a result, the Earth is on course to warm a catastrophic 2.7 C, according to the UN. As parts of France, Portugal and Spain have this week been burning and the temperature in various parts of Europe were climbing to unprecedented levels, parts of the UK have experienced their hottest nights and days since records began. Against such a backdrop, a meeting in Berlin chaired by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the global warming target limit has been slipping further out of reach, leading to more people being hit by extreme floods, droughts, storms and wildfires. The meeting in Berlin gathered senior officials from 40 countries for a dialogue about how to stay focused on fighting climate change and its impacts despite the current war in Ukraine, the rising cost of living everywhere, which is putting pressure on government budgets, and the return of investments in fossil fuels to plug shortages. These have all been the result of geopolitical adversities and have negatively impacted the building of trust while trying to kick-start the funding to aid developing countries in their efforts to meet climate targets. The meeting once again highlighted the fear and the hope of all parties to stay on track, despite the seeping distrust that not all nations’ priorities are aligned in terms of achieving what has been pledged in the various UN climate change summits over the past three decades. COP27, which will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt in November, will be no different, as the desire for a consensus could be further complicated by the conflict in Ukraine. The target of that summit will mainly be to streamline the provision of aid to developing nations to support their transition to a greener economy. But that will not happen smoothly, for fear that many poorer nations could funnel such funds away from their intended use. At the same time, inflation and a lack of economic growth could push some rich countries to renege on their climate pledges in order to prioritize paying for their domestic crises. The scientists have been laying it out bare, but governments and individuals are still failing the planet. Mohamed Chebaro It is sad, therefore, to write the following lines: That climate change, emissions and delays in transitioning to a greener economy will directly impact human health, compound droughts and make larger areas vulnerable to wildfires, such as those raging in France, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Morocco. Such developments also affect food supplies and food security everywhere. This vicious circle could still be closed, but only if people and their governments put aside their differences and competitive nature for the benefit of all. So far, the signs of that happening are dim and heat waves are here to stay for now. Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist, media consultant and trainer with more than 25 years’ experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.