Richard Prebble: Human ingenuity needed to beat global warming

OPINION:

Maybe this is how the world ends, not with a whimper but a shambles. Sharm El Sheikh is an appropriate place to hold a climate conference; the whole place is a climate warning. It’s an Egyptian Las Vegas with a casino and the world’s largest artificial lagoon. The city’s carbon emissions must be enormous.

I am staying in a huge resort hotel. All the tourists, usually Germans sunbathing, have had their reservations cancelled to make room for COP delegates. Amongst the guests I recognise the types, bureaucrats, NGO staffers and consultants. The resort during the day is empty. No one is sunbathing by the pools. Everyone is at COP27.

We might be the only tourists in the hotel. The wedding I have come for is cancelled because other guests had their reservations revoked. The Egyptian wedding guests could not get permission to travel here. There are police and roadblocks everywhere.

Maybe my reservation was not cancelled because everyone assumes I am a delegate. I was asked if I was the German Minister of Agriculture. In Cairo, despite my denial, officials showed me to the front of the queue boarding the plane. Any time saved was lost when our plane had to circle Sharma El Sheikh Airport for over an hour. We were kept waiting by Air Force One carrying US President Joe Biden. Nothing has been on time.

COP27′s new initiative is to create a fund for loss and damage. It is like the passengers on the Titanic demanding compensation for any water damage to their luggage rather than insisting the ship misses the iceberg. Any compensation will never be more than a gesture. It was disappointing to see New Zealand supporting this nonsense but then our Government loves gestures.

The message from COP27 is if we are relying on the politicians there is no way global warming will be limited to 1.5C.

There is also hope at COP27.

The best way to envisage COP27 is it is like a festival that is surrounded by fringe festivals and stalls selling things. All sorts of people are here making pitches for their “sustainable” solutions.

Iwi are here, with some Pacific Island representation at the Hinemoana Halo Climate Investment Forum pitching their proposals to combat global warming. The forum is sponsored by Conservation International, an American nonprofit. Harrison Ford is vice-chairman. They fund conservation initiatives. Huge investment funds exist to fund technology to mitigate global warming. COP27 is the forum where the promoters meet the funders.

I went to the Hinemoana Halo forum. Here are three of the proposals Iwi pitched.

Seagrass is a better absorber of carbon than trees. Seaweed can be planted. Iwi want to plant seagrass “fields” and get the carbon credits. Trials are being conducted. What is needed is a legal framework and a regulatory system so seagrass fields can be owned, protected and the carbon credits created traded. You do not want someone bottom trawling through your seagrass field. Iwi’s solution is to claim the sea floor. To get investment to create seagrass fields we need something like the fishing quota, with a quota reserved for Māori, to give an ownership right to harvest the sea floor.

Pacific Island nations far from being the victims of climate change may be huge beneficiaries. The PM of the Bahamas who is leading the call for compensation is the leader of the nation surrounded by the world’s biggest seagrass field.

New Zealand does not get recognition for our pine forest absorbing carbon because when the tree is harvested the carbon is released. Half of the tree is off-cuts. Iwi are significant forest owners. One Iwi has been using some of its settlement money to investigate whether the wood waste can be refined to produce a range of products including a biofuel. They believe the answer is yes.

For those who want to save the whales, here is a new reason. Whales eat plankton that in turn eats diatoms that absorb CO2. A 30-tonne whale is a living carbon sink. When the whale dies it sinks to the bottom of the ocean where carbon cannot return to the atmosphere.

The presentation claimed “over the course of their lifetime, a great whale sequesters approximately 33 tons of CO2, equivalent to 30,000 trees, and … if whales were to return to their former abundance, they could capture approximately 1.7 billion tonnes of CO2 annually”.

The Iwi are seeking $170 million for their fund, good luck with that.

I do not know the merit of any of the proposals. These are a few solutions from Māori. The whole world is applying its mind to climate change. Imagine how many clever ideas there are.

If we are going to beat global warming it will by human ingenuity.