I. Climate Science

This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will again take place as a fully hybrid conference in both Vienna and online from May 4 to 8. This year, I'll join the event virtually for the full week, participating in the hybrid sessions from the comforts of my home. I already picked most of the sessions I plan to attend and - as meet-hopping is a lot easier online than on-site - I didn't have to pay close attention to where in the conference center they happen. This year, I submitted abstracts to two sessions and both happen to be on Monday. This suits me just fine as it means, that I can freely plan the rest of my week, picking and chosing sessions piquing my interest. This blog post provides an overview of my itinerary.

The very first session for me at this year's EGU meeting starts at 8:30 and will be EOS1.1 Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection in which I'll have the first of my two oral presentation slots. The session has been (co)convened by Roberta Bellini, Nuno Pimentel, Megan O'Donnell, Thomas Harvey, Ashley Akingbade and Nikos Kalivitis and will include the Angela Croome Award Lecture as well as the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award Lecture.

Science communication includes the efforts of natural, physical and social scientists, communications professionals, and teams that communicate the process and values of science and scientific findings to non-specialist audiences outside of formal educational settings. The goals of science communication can include enhanced dialogue, understanding, awareness, enthusiasm, influencing sustainable behaviour change, improving decision making, and/or community building. Channels to facilitate science communication can include in-person interaction through teaching and outreach programs, and online through social media, mass media, podcasts, video, or other methods. This session invites presentations by individuals and teams on science communication practice, research, and reflection, addressing questions like:

• What kind of communication efforts are you engaging in and how are you doing it?
• What are the biggest challenges or successes you’ve had in engaging the public with your work?
• How are other disciplines (such as social sciences) informing understanding of audiences, strategies, or effects?
• How do you spark joy and foster emotional connection through activities?
• How do you allow for co-creation of ideas within a community?
• How are you assessing and measuring the positive impacts on society of your endeavours?
• What are lessons learned from long-term communication efforts?

Based on its description this seemed to be a very good session to talk about our upcoming website relaunch and it'll be my turn for not quite 10 minutes at 10:05 to do just that in my assigned oral slot. This is the abstract I submitted a few months ago:

Relaunching the Skeptical Science website to include prebunking tools

Skeptical Science is a highly-visited website featuring 250 rebuttals of misinformation about climate change and climate solutions. Many of the rebuttals are written at multiple levels—basic, intermediate, and advanced—in order to reach as wide an audience as possible. Results from a survey we've been running on our website since November 2021 indicate that there is some room for improvements in order to make the rebuttals more robust. It is therefore rather good timing that we've been working on a complete overhaul of our website which should increase the effectiveness of rebuttals in reducing acceptance in climate myths and increasing acceptance of climate facts. A key goal of misinformation interventions is to increase reader discernment, the difference between belief in facts and belief in myths. While there was overall an increase in discernment, with the decrease in agreement with myths greater than the decrease in agreement with facts, the result that belief in climate facts decreased for at least some rebuttals is unwelcome and counter to the goal of Skeptical Science. In this presentation, we'll give a sneak peek at how the new website will look like. One important new feature will be the inclusion - where applicable - of the fallacies employed by a climate myth, so that a rebuttal on the new website will then include all three elements of a successful debunking: fact, myth and fallacy. In my presentation, I'll also highlight some of the other updated or new features this website relaunch will include.

Here is a sneak peek of my drafted presentation:

Judging by their titles and abstracts there'll be many interesting presentations in this wide-ranging session about science communication! So many abstracts were submitted that EOS1.1 was given 4 oral slots (2 each on Monday and Tuesday morning) to cover 35 oral presentations as well as 2 poster slots for a similar number of posters!

In the afternoon of EGU's first day, I'll be joining session EOS4.1 Geoethics: Linking Geoscience Knowledge, Ethical Responsibility, and Action, (co)convened by Silvia Peppoloni, Giuseppe Di Capua, Anita Di Chiara and David Crookall:

Geoscientists play a key role in providing essential information in decision-making processes that consider environmental, social, and economic consequences of geoscience work. Therefore, their responsibilities extend beyond scientific analysis alone. Global challenges, such as climate change, resource management, and disaster risk reduction, push geoscientists to expand their role beyond research and to engage ethically in public efforts.

Geoethics provides a framework for reflecting on the ethical, social, and cultural implications of geoscience in research, practice, and education, guiding responsible action for society and the environment. It also encourages the scientific community to move beyond purely technical solutions by embracing just, inclusive, and transformative approaches to socio-environmental issues.

Furthermore, science is inseparable from social and geopolitical contexts. These conditions shape what research is funded, whose knowledge is valued, with whom we collaborate, and who has access to conferences. As Earth and planetary scientists, we must consider the human and environmental consequences of our work. This is especially true in Earth observation, where many satellites have both scientific and military applications, and where scientific tools have at times enabled ecocide and resource exploitation under neocolonial systems.

This session will offer insights and reflections across a wide range of topics, from theoretical considerations to case studies, foster awareness and discussion of sensitive issues at the geoscience–society interface and explore how geoethics can guide responsible behavior and policies in the geosciences. 

I'll give an oral presentation in the 2nd part of this session at 17:15 sharing the results of the "Skeptical Science Experiment", which we recently pubished a paper about in EGU's Geoscience Communication journal:

Results of the Skeptical Science experiment and impacts on relaunched website

Skeptical Science is a highly-visited website featuring 250 rebuttals of misinformation about climate change and climate solutions. The rebuttals are written at multiple levels—basic, intermediate, and advanced—in order to reach as wide an audience as possible. Since November 2021, we have collected survey data from visitors, assessing the effectiveness of rebuttals in reducing acceptance in climate myths and increasing acceptance of climate facts. A key goal of misinformation interventions is to increase reader discernment, the difference between belief in facts and belief in myths. While there was overall an increase in discernment, with the decrease in agreement with myths greater than the decrease in agreement with facts, we also found that belief in climate facts decreased for at least some rebuttals - an unwelcome result running counter to Skeptical Science’s goals. Due to the survey design and not collecting any information about why readers selected a specific option, we can only make educated guesses about what may have led to selecting a specific option. In parallel to running the experiment on our website, we have also been working on a website relaunch project which will address some of the shortcomings already identified. One new feature will be the inclusion - where applicable - of logical fallacies used in climate myths, so that rebuttals will include all three elements of a successful debunking: fact, myth and fallacy. In my presentation, I'll also highlight some of the other updated or new features this website relaunch will include.

Here is a sneak peek of my drafted presentation:

As the rest of the week is not yet cut in stone, I'll not go into any details and will only mention a few sessions I plan to join because they've been fun in previous years or because their titles and abstracts sound interesting:

• EOS1.6 - PICO session - Up-Goer Five Challenge: Making Big Ideas Simpler by Talking About Them in Words We Use a Lot (Tuesday afternoon)
• EOS1.3 - PICO - Games for Geoscience (Wednesday afternoon)
• SC3.3 - Short course - New Toolkits – the destabilisation of science and what we can do about it (Thursday morning)

When I'm not participating in sessions or busy writing about them, I may well hang out in "Gather", the virtual conference center for anybody joining onine. It's a fun set up where you can walk around as an avatar and meet others doing the same either in the virtual pster halls or even outside in a park or on the rooftop.

Looking at the sessions I've thus far added to my personal program, I'm fairly certain that I unfortunately will not be able to make it to all of them - especially the overlapping ones! However, one advantage of pariticpating virtually is that it's possible to quickly jump from one session to another if an interesting presentation beckons! Here is what I have planned:

I plan to publish two companion articles about my presentations as well as a by now almost customary EGU diary. Should be fun!

To learn more about the conference, visit their website at egu26.eu!

New analysis from Carbon Tracker finds that accelerated battery electric vehicle adoption in Colombia could save around US$40 billion in fossil fuel import costs through to 2050. It would also reduce pollution-related health costs and avoid climate-related economic damage.

London, 20 April, 2026 – Colombia’s continued reliance on internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles is creating long-term economic liabilities and increasing exposure to imported refined fuels, according to a new report from Carbon Tracker. Transport accounted for 75% of Colombia’s oil consumption in 2023, with over 25% imported. Under a business-as-usual pathway, Colombia could spend up to US$226bn on fuel import for road transport through to 2050.

By contrast, an accelerated transition to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) would avoid 600 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in fossil fuel use through to 2050 and deliver around US$40 billion in fuel import savings.

The report argues that continued ICE vehicle sales lock Colombia into decades of higher fuel demand, health costs and climate-related economic damage. Carbon Tracker estimates that every new petrol and diesel vehicle sold today adds substantial lifetime costs: nearly US$6k per passenger car, US$120k per medium-duty truck, US$278k per heavy-duty truck and US$350k per bus.

The analysis also points to the pressure on public finances. Carbon Tracker estimates fossil fuel subsidies at around US$6.8bn in 2025, compared with US$6.3bn in government revenues from fossil fuel sales, leaving a shortfall of US$0.5bn.

At the same time, the report finds that the global automotive market is shifting rapidly in ways that de-risk BEV adoption. China’s manufacturing expansion has helped cut battery costs by more than 80% since 2013, while expanding model availability and strengthening supply chains. For emerging economies such as Colombia, this is improving access to lower-cost electric mobility.

Carbon Tracker argues that Colombia is well placed to move faster in BEV adoption. The report highlights three key advantages: a relatively low (car ownership per capita), an electricity system primarily (72%) dependenton (clean) hydropower, and limited exposure to legacy domestic automotive manufacturing. Electricity also remains cheaper than petrol or diesel for road transport, lowering the lifetime ownership cost of BEVs compared to ICE cars for consumers.

Alongside the economic case, the report finds that an accelerated BEV transition could generate health cost savings from lower levels of harmful air pollution. It also estimates that lower vehicle fleet emissions could avoid up to c US$35bn (present value) in climate-related economic damages through to 2050.

Ben Scott, report author and Head of Energy Demand at Carbon Tracker, said:

“Colombia has a clear opportunity to avoid deeper dependence on imported transport fuels and the long-term costs associated with continued ICE vehicle sales. The country has structural advantages that support transition to BEVs, while providing an opportunity to phase down fuel subsidies, reducing pressure on public finances.”

The report calls on the Colombian government to develop a joined-up economic and industrial strategy that positions BEVs as a key sector in a modernised, low-carbon economy. It recommends strong supply-side regulations, co-ordinated fiscal reform, and targeted charging infrastructure rollout.

Leapfrog to Electric: Colombia. The Economic Benefits of Pro-Electric Vehicle Policy can be downloaded, free at [Link]. This report was produced in association with Polen Transiciones Justas.

Spokesperson: Ben Scott, Head of Energy Demand, Carbon Tracker

For more information and to arrange interviews please contact:
media@tracker-group.org

Carbon Tracker is a not-for-profit independent financial think tank that seeks to promote a climate-secure global energy market by aligning capital markets with climate reality. Part of the Tracker Group, Carbon Tracker’s research on the carbon bubble, unburnable carbon and stranded assets started a new debate on how to align the financial system with the energy transition to a low-carbon future.

The post Colombia could save US$40 billion in fuel import by accelerating electric vehicle adoption appeared first on Carbon Tracker Initiative.