COP28: MELTING GLACIERS REVEAL SUMMIT COP-OUTS

THE lexicon describes the verb 'cop out' as avoiding or neglecting problems, responsibilities or commitments. The noun 'cop-out' represents the act or instance of copping out. The intransitive verb and the noun will both be at play this week at the #COP28 in Dubai. Typically, countries collect, converse, commiserate and concur to coalesce on a consensus to kick the can down the road.

- SHANKKAR AIYAR

The Conference of Parties aka COP is meeting for the 28th time since the Berlin summit in 1995. The track record of outcomes from COP summits is illuminated by the gap between grand declarations and grand inaction. For sure there has been a litany of pious intent, studies and reports. And yet, emission of greenhouse gases, a full 50 percent above the pre-industrial era in 2022, hit record highs in 2023. The consequence is vividly visible across an array of indicators.

In September, Gianpaolo Palladino, who has been assessing the retreat of glaciers at the Gran Paradiso National Park in Italy for decades, flew in for another assessment. His words signal an ominous turn in the trajectory of climate change: "For 30 years I had landed on ice and this was the first year I landed on rocks." His report underlines that there was no trace of residual winter snow left on the glacier.

Glaciers, a reliable marker of climate change, are retreating across the world. Greenland is home to over 20,000 glaciers. Photographic comparisons show glaciers are receding twice as fast as in the 20th Century.

Peru, home to two thirds of the world's tropical glaciers, has lost over half its glacier surface in the past six decades. In the US, climatologists worry that the North Cascade glacier is losing area and cannot survive long with no rained accumulation.