ABSTRACT
Cargo ships report huge plumes of bubbling water in the Arctic, as vast stores of frozen methane hydrate melt and add to the climate feedback loops already playing out. The Anthropocene extinction event has been unfolding largely without action from states preoccupied with short-termism and nationalist backlash against collective, coordinated climate change solutions. Some regions of the globe have tipped over into new climate change states, a new equilibrium. Leaders at COP26 failed to seize the opportunity to reset expectations across markets and economies on the climate change glidepath to net zero. In hindsight, COP26 was viewed by observers as the last real opportunity to secure a sustainable climate change narrative, a net-zero transition that could be achieved without significant economic disruption and societal unrest. The US was backsliding and again becoming isolationist and denialist on climate change. Some states, primarily in Europe, took more robust regulatory action, and their firms made the leap to the climate change net-zero narrative.
