We are still facing a fossil fuel future

All the focus of the "triumph" at the Sharm el-Sheikh climate conference has been on the fund to be set up to compensate developing countries for the suffering they have had and are having as a result of global warming, caused by the developed countries. There is no doubt it is a just and fair decision. Why should countries such as Bangladesh bear the burden of climate-change disasters when they have contributed only a small percentage of the carbon emissions that are destroying our planet? But will China which claims to be still a developing country contribute to the fund? China is the biggest carbon emitter in the world, double the amount of what the US emits. We will have to wait and see. But far more interesting and alarming is the fundamental failure of the conference of heads of government to announce a total war on fossil fuels. Indeed at the last moment a clause was slipped into the final document which appeared to favour an increase in the use of natural gas because it emits fewer carbons than coal. But it's still a big-time carbon emitter and the conference should have been brave enough to set a timetable for stopping the use of all fossil fuels. Russia which holds Europe to ransom with its export of natural gas to keep European homes warm will be delighted. Does Moscow care about the world's climate when it needs to sell its vast stocks of natural gas to fund the war in Ukraine? So another year will go by before the fossil fuel issue is raised again. That's another year of rising temnperatures and rising sea levels. So the developing nations have got the financial help they have been begging for for years, but the world as a whole is still heading for climatic catastrophe.