John Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, attends an event in support of tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050 at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.(Peter Dejong / Associated Press)

Heat records broken, air conditioning making greenhouse gases worse, EV charging efforts falling flat, and a U.N. climate conference with plenty of controversy

By Michael Smolens Columnist

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry hit a positive note last week in announcing the United States will work with other countries to ramp up efforts to make nuclear fusion a new source of carbon-free energy.

That certainly resonated in San Diego, where General Atomics has been a major international player in the development of fusion.

It was a bright spot in a mostly grim stretch of climate news as world leaders met in Dubai at COP28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where Kerry made the announcement.

But even that upbeat moment is tempered by the always promising, always uncertain future of nuclear fusion’s real-world application.

Rob Nikolewski, energy reporter at The San Diego Union-Tribune, has pointed out fusion has its share of skeptics who doubt whether the technology will ever be harnessed to the point where a commercial power plant can be cost-effective.

“There’s a long-running joke in the energy industry that fusion is always 30 years away,” he once wrote.

Still, questions about fusion’s future are hardly a negative notion compared with other recent climate developments.

The past decade was the hottest on record and 2023 has been the hottest year ever recorded, with scientists saying “the temperature will keep rising.”

The world will increasingly rely on air conditioning, but a U.N. report said the energy use may result in more greenhouse gas emissions that exacerbate climate change.

A multibillion-dollar push by the Biden administration and Congress in 2021 to expand charging stations for zero-emission electric vehicles has yet to kick in.

Meanwhile, to the extent COP28 will be remembered, it may be for controversy more than anything else. Despite increasingly dire reports about climate change, past U.N. conferences often have presented a clear, if largely symbolic, consensus about taking action to reverse global warming.

There was plenty of that this past week. But those messages were diluted not only because the conference was held in the United Arab Emirates, a “petrostate,” but because of who was leading it and what he said.

The COP28 president is Sultan Al Jaber, the head of a renewable energy company and also the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Just days before the conference began, he said there is “no science” that says phasing out fossil fuels is necessary to keep global warming in check.

Never mind that there’s broad agreement among scientists that cutting use of fossil fuels is necessary to reduce greenhouse gases. Al Jaber attempted to walk back his comments, but the damage was done.

Regardless, worldwide commitments on reducing fossil fuel emissions don’t seem to be working. The Global Carbon Project found climate pollution from fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas — increased around the world, according to CNN.

The organization’s report noted coal and oil emissions have increased significantly in India and China, while the U.S. and the European Union showed strong declines in coal. Emissions from natural gas are increasing in the U.S., China and India, but decreasing in the EU.

Air conditioning will be needed to give immediate relief to people on this warming planet. But if clean energy does not become the world’s dominant power source, the emissions from increased electricity use appears destined to generate more warming greenhouse gases.

At COP28, 60 nations reached a voluntary agreement to reduce emissions from air conditioning and other cooling machines, such as refrigerators. A U.N. report said in addition to improving efficiency, phasing out the use of hydrofluorocarbons, known as HFCs, used in air conditioners and refrigerators would help reduce global-warming emissions.

Congress and the Biden and Trump administrations have acted on legislation and rules to reduce HFCs. As with so many other efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, negotiations to soften industry opposition — or neutralize it — were not easy.

But sometimes even seemingly low-hanging fruit can be difficult to pick. A head-shaking story by James Bikales of Politico about a federal effort to greatly increase the number of electric vehicle chargers across the country is a case in point.

At the urging of the Biden administration, Congress agreed in 2021 to spend $7.5 billion to build tens of thousands of electric vehicle chargers, “aiming to appease anxious drivers while tackling climate change,” Bikales wrote.

Two years later, the program has yet to install a single charger from the money included in the bipartisan infrastructure law. In short, bureaucratic hurdles got in the way, though there’s hope that at least some of the chargers will go online next year.

Bikales said states and the charger industry blame the delays mostly on contracting and performance requirements tied to the federal funds. More than $2 billion was authorized to go to states, but fewer than half the states had started taking bids from contractors to build the chargers as of late November, when Bikales’ story was published.

Demand for electric vehicles has boomed in recent years, though auto manufacturers are anticipating a near-term slowdown. Automakers cited high borrowing costs as one reason, but there are others.

“They say consumers are concerned about the range of EVs and lack of infrastructure,” wrote Phillip Molnar of the Union-Tribune.

The big climate-change picture right now may be grim, but we don’t have to give in to a nihilistic downward spiral.

Substantial long-term growth is still projected for electric vehicles, which may receive a boost with more confidence that charging stations will be available.

Clean energy production is growing fast due to booming solar, wind and other renewable energy projects.

In the waning days of COP28 there was still talk about an agreement calling for a “phase-out” of fossil fuels — or a less-intense “phase-down” — despite opposition from some major oil-producing countries.

Even Al Jaber, while defending his remarks, said, “the phase-down and the phaseout of fossil fuels is inevitable.”

And if nuclear fusion ever transitions from the research and development stage to practical, real-world use, San Diego will be in the middle of it.

What they said

The Washington Post: “Ryan Roth voted for himself to serve on the city council in Rainier, Wash., which led him to win the election by one vote when his opponent didn’t cast a ballot.”

Observed Gil Cabrera, chair of the San Diego Airport Authority, on X: “Always vote.”