From April 2021

Parcels of good news continued to pour in but plastered with ‘Fragile’ stickers.

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The United States and China agreed to agree to agree about doing something serious on the climate front while US President Biden pushed on with decarbonization plans back home. Japan wants hydrogen to be its mainstay in the climate war but will that really suit the planet or will hydrogen ultimately bomb?

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Those at the coalface of climate action are warning that so much of the rhetoric and expressed ambition may be doomed to serious compromise. For example, won’t rogue states jump in to take advantage of fossil fuels that are cheaper due to low demand?

Will the Tropical Trump, Brazil’s Bolsonaro really reduce Amazon deforestation or will he, having discovered that people will pay to save the precious place, double down on destruction in the hope of more reward?

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Is solar geoengineering of any kind a safe option even if it is doable? And have the accountants missed something massive - such as this: Could it just be that net zero is a dangerous trap?

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Such questions keep earth scientists up at night because no-one is really in control of this overladen supertanker. The UN perhaps offers the most consistently credible leadership even if the global organization itself resembles a giant cargo ship picking its way through a long canal with a train of hopeful vessels on its tail.