As expected, the landmark 1.5°C report issued last October by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was officially and permanently set aside, after Saudi Arabia and a small number of oil-producing allies concluded a successful, six-month stonewall against the settled science of climate change.

“The move essentially declares that small islands and low-lying coastal developing states like my home, Belize, are disposable global zones to be sacrificed amid unprecedented climate change,” wrote Lois Young, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). “This is a crisis that affects our security, and we call on those blocking at the UN to step aside.”

“It shows a small group of large oil and gas-producing countries have deep concerns about the implications of the report for their future revenue, and are coordinating a strategy to try and block these implications to be more widely understood,” said Union of Concerned Scientists Policy Director Alden Meyer.