I hate writing about climate change in fiction because climate change is not fiction, but if the creative act imbues a piece of you into your made-up stories, then so be it. Just go for it.

Between being in Dubai for COP28 and recently looking at the state of the climate change mitigation process in Australia, I have a few recollections, mostly tidbits, that I think are important. This isn’t a comprehensive dialogue. It’s just a snapshot of elements that might be of interest to writers. Use liberally. Please be respectful; it’s a complicated, complicated issue that often gets trivialized, and while I hate that, we do have to increase awareness of the measure of the problem.

Tidbit 1: ‘renewable energy is unreliable because the sun only shines sometimes and the wind only blows sometimes’. That’s true. But we have multiple approaches to energy storage now. You can find batteries as big as football fields (multiple individual containers) that can store energy. The intermittency of renewables is just an engineering problem, and we’ve solved it. We can also store energy in the form of water or compressed air. Either way, renewables have to be paired with storage in just about all cases, and that is now possible. The intermittency argument is a red herring.

Tidbit 2: Net Zero 2050, which is the common goal of most nations, does not mean that we will see the end of fossil fuels by 2050. They’ll still be on the grid, but much less than now. It’s likely we’ll still be using some fossil content by the end of the century, but much reduced. If we’re talking about a grand energy transition to a new form of energy, replacing or repurposing much of our existing infrastructure, think of Net Zero 2050 as a stop on that transition pathway, rather than the endpoint. We don’t even have a name for the 2100 endpoint, which I think is the ultimate goal.

Tidbit 3: you could get rid of all fossil fuels in five years if you really wanted to. It’s possible if we put enough energy and money into it. But no one would be able to afford the energy unless you’re insanely rich. Could you put 90% of your income towards energy supply? That’s why this is called a transition. It has to be done in a way that doesn’t create economic disparity, especially amongst vulnerable communities. We cannot leave people behind in this, and we have to stay practical.

Tidbit 4: we are in the era of exportable renewables. Once upon a time, you could only use wind and solar and hydropower locally. The electricity would serve the immediate markets and users. But now we can convert electricity from green sources into forms of energy such as hydrogen and ammonia that can be packed and exported around the world. Once, we thought of the oil-producing countries as the exporters of energy. In the future, it will be the countries rich with renewables. We’ll have to redraw the map.

Tidbit 5: geopolitical sources favour clean energy. China is a great example. They don’t have a tremendous amount of their own fossil energy, so are dependent on others for supply. They don’t want to be, so they’re creating renewable energy at a remarkable clip. In doing so, they become geopolitically independent for their energy. Think of Europe and their dependence on Russian natural gas, and how much of a mess that has made. Renewables offer independence – if you have the resource (not everyone does).

Tidbit 6: treat fossil fuels as a great, long-term battery of the Earth that sponsored the industrial revolution and much of civilization as we know it. Think of the present as  Industrial Revolution 2.0, abutted as it is against the Digital Revolution. We fuelled civilization using fossil fuels and began to deplete that ancient battery of the Earth; now we have to get off fossil fuels and take energy directly from the sun. It’s a big shift, but there is already much work done across the world.

Tidbit 7: don’t forget about nuclear in the discussion. Ultimately, we can’t do everything with renewables, and need baseload capacity. Nuclear has a future here, but also won’t solve all the problems. This is about integrated solutions and planning; all approaches are necessary, and prioritization will shift depending on region. If you’re Germany, you likely need nuclear, as you don’t have renewables in large quantities. If you’re Chile and you have abundant renewables, maybe you don’t need it.

Tidbit 8: Europe is well ahead of North America in the race to decarbonize. But even still, the world is not moving fast enough. We’re already seeing island nations around the world that have to adapt to a changing climate now, and we have to help them, or they will lose their ancestral lands. The pace of capital flows into decarbonized projects is not moving fast enough, at all. We need to build new infrastructure quickly and get it into operations. We need to shut down coal plants and find a transition pathway for natural gas, plus we have to fuel switch transportation fuels like gasoline and diesel and jet fuel. We have to move faster.

Tidbit 9: there’s no free lunch. This isn’t going to be cheap, but we have to keep in mind disadvantaged communities (and nations) that want to progress and that can’t be left behind. They also can’t be told not to progress; we, who have benefitted from fossil fuels the most, can’t tell others that they must not progress. Maybe they can leapfrog us into the renewables era. Either way, this must be a just transition. Also, what is the true cost of fighting climate change when we actually include climate impacts into the bill? Is it really more expensive than continuing to do what we are already doing?

Tidbit 10: politics are irrelevant. Political cycles of between 4-6 years are not aligned with the 25-year timeframe to Net Zero 2050, let alone to the end of the century. What politicians are making decisions, unpopular as they may be, that outlast their political tenure? There is a significant misalignment between political cycles and the work that must be done. It’s vitally important that we, as voters and shareholders and concerned citizens, hold our leaders to a longer-term view of the planet. Nothing else suffices.

And finally: remain optimistic. I can’t tell you the number of like-minded people I meet around the world that are pushing on this immense challenge. We don’t tell enough stories about the wonderful projects and decarbonization efforts that are occurring around the world, but we should be. We should be telling them as often as the next story about climate challenges. We have to remain positive about this and buoy the people who are taking on this challenge head-on. There are more and more of these people all the time. I hope you, whoever is reading this, are one too. And please keep in mind that young people who are on the way to post-secondary are going in with great knowledge of what is going on – I put great belief in their ability to do even more going forward. I remain, as always, optimistic.

Now, if you can put that optimism into writing, rather than the consistent doom and gloom, I’d be much appreciated. You’d be an ally. I know it’s hard, but consider this the challenge of our times, and figure out where you want to play in it.