Abacus | The US, Britain and Europe ‘led’ in creating climate change. China, Japan and Australia can lead the solution

10,973 offshore wind power turbines generate 30 per cent of the UK’s electricity needs. Hong Kong has one lonely turbine on Lamma Island that perhaps can power a village

The 2021 IPCC report may be the turning point when we are forced consider where Hong Kong and the rest of Asia is on renewable energy

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Volunteers support firefighters during a wildfire next to the village of Kamatriades in Greece. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:00am, 30 Aug 2021

Brits in the UK love to talk about the weather. It is the topic of conversation which is guaranteed to come up when meeting and greeting, followed by blaming delays in public transport on the dreadful weather. It’s the same broken record: how rotten the summer is and, indeed, how all summers have worsened since 1976 – the best summer in living memory, now 45 years ago.

I’m just as bad. Sitting by the Discovery Bay ferry pier with my pint, I’m likely to witter on about how hot it has been this past week, or how wet it has been, and how mushrooms are growing on my unused ties in the closet.

The changing weather has recently got the globe talking too, with widespread storms this year flooding parts of China, Germany, Australia, and Britain – followed by giant hailstones the size of golf balls in northern England. There was record snow in Madrid, and rare and heavy snow in Texas and parts of Brazil. Air temperatures during the Pacific northwest “heat dome” cooked eggs while wildfires raged in Oregon and parts of Greece. The most recent oddity was a tropical storm that hit New England last week, landing on Rhode Island while some friends with kids cowered in their basement. And what about snow in Sichuan in August?

The destabilisation of weather patterns has been an increasing concern for scientists who regularly deliver the message that we are responsible, to many deaf ears. Perhaps we are still in denial, or just don’t believe the warnings, as we continue to allow frivolous industries like cryptocurrency mining – the global electricity consumption from Bitcoin mining outstrips that of Bangladesh.

Historically, some have expressed doubt about the climate emergency, arguing that warming overall temperatures were a normal occurrence caused by the Earth’s wobbly orbit, or some other natural influence. Or that it was all made up for political purposes. Never mind that oil companies like Exxon knew about climate change nearly 45 years ago, but spent decades telling the world otherwise.

In a much-publicised report this month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to my mind, all doubt was removed. And the report is clearly compiled as a wake-up call for policymakers.