Samir Nazareth

Opinion | After a hot 2023 – from wars to the weather – may 2024 be cooler

It has been a hot year in too many ways, with temperatures rising and wars unfolding, and a good deal of hypocrisy in evidence

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Pedestrians walk down a footbridge, in Central, Hong Kong, with cooling pads on their foreheads during a hot day in June. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Samir Nazareth

Published: 4:30pm, 25 Dec 2023

And so the annual tradition of exclaiming at how fast the year has flown by continues in 2023, a year that has been a mix of the stale and unique. Wars in Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Sudan and other parts of Africa now have competition – from the Israeli-Hamas conflict. Yet again, the “hottest year” was parroted as climate change made the world sweat.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s look back at some phrases and numbers that defined this year.

Hypocrisy – If one word encapsulates 2023, this is it. The Cop28 UN climate conference held in the United Arab Emirates was presided over by Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company – the world’s 12th largest oil producer with every intention of continuing to invest in fossil fuels.

At least 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists gained access to Cop28, a record number that made it practically a meeting of the “oil boys’ club”. Unsurprisingly, while “the science is irrefutable” delegates debated whether to phase fossil fuels down or out, the final draft spoke vaguely of “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”.

And then there are those vocally supporting the Palestinian cause who give the plight of the Uygurs, Rohingyas, Yemenis, Afghans and other Muslims the silent treatment. Meanwhile, the vow of “never again”, associated with the horror of the Holocaust, now seems to rationalise the murder of thousands of innocents as the Israel Defence Forces attempt to destroy Hamas, whose October 7 barbarities included murder, rape and kidnapping.

WCNSF – “Wounded child, no surviving family” is a term that emerged during the Israeli-Hamas conflict and has been used by hospital staff in Gaza for the sole surviving children of Israeli bombardments. Since October 7, Israel has used an estimated 29,000 air-to-ground munitions on Gaza, including more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives “equivalent to two nuclear bombs”, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. More than 8,000 children have been killed.