Net zero is an insidious loophole that distracts from the scientific imperative to eliminate fossil fuels | Joëlle Gergis

History tells us that polite incrementalism and political kowtowing will prevail at Cop30 - even as catastrophe unfolds around us

As world leaders gather in Brazil this year for Cop30 - the first Amazonian Cop - it's worth doing a quick reality check on how we are collectively tracking to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite 30 years of UN climate summits, about half of the carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution has been emitted since 1990. Incidentally, 1990 was the year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - the global authority on climate change science - released its First Assessment Report confirming the threat of human-caused global warming. As scientists all over the world prepare the IPCC's Seventh Assessment Report, we do so knowing that our work is still being overshadowed by politics. Despite all the well-intentioned half-measures, the truth is that the world is still disastrously off track to limit dangerous climate change.

Dr Joelle Gergis is an award-winning climate scientist and writer from the University of Melbourne. She served as a lead author on the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on the Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report