Climate change isn't a conspiracy theory: how ‘climate volatility’ has upended North American snowfall – and what to expect from the UN Climate Change Conference 2025

Believe it or not, while we were here in the Gulf bracing for a record heatwave at the start of summer, people in the US state of Connecticut were digging their cars out from under snowdrifts that reached over 90 centimetres in some areas back in March. I'm not telling you this just to spin a yarn about weird weather. I'm telling you because climate change is no longer just a term we hear on the news; ‘climate volatility’ has become the new normal we're all living with.

This past winter on the East Coast of America felt like something from a cartoon. In just one month, temperatures plunged to record lows not seen in decades, so much so that some cities recorded their coldest days since 1904. I was keeping an eye on the numbers while chatting with colleagues in the Environment and Climate Change field, and everyone agreed that this wasn't just ‘a normal winter’. The snowstorms weren't simply about snowfall; they were violent and unpredictable, leaving road crews struggling to keep up with the sheer volume.

The harshest winter shatters the illusion of ‘stability’

In February alone, Connecticut saw as much snow as it used to get over three entire seasons combined a decade ago. Why does this matter to us? Because this is precisely the flip side of climate change. Many people think the problem is just rising temperatures, but the real issue is instability. When you mix freezing Arctic air with unprecedented moisture from the Atlantic, caused by warmer seas, you get storms unlike anything we knew in the past.

This is what we're seeing around the world today. Canada experienced a similar story, with Environment And Climate Change Canada issuing unprecedented warnings about the severe swings in temperature. No one in the world is immune to this impact, whether we're in Riyadh, Doha, or New York.

The 2025 Climate Summit.. the moment of truth

All of this is happening as we stand on the brink of a pivotal global event: the UN Climate Change Conference 2025. The next one will be different. After years of theoretical debates, the world is realising that climate change is a matter of national security before it's even an environmental issue. Expectations suggest this conference will be far more serious than its predecessors. The data that emerged from last winter has confronted everyone with an indisputable fact: we can't tackle climate volatility with yesterday's methods.

Sadly, some parties are still betting that the problem is far away from us. But I see what happened in Connecticut, in Canada, and in parts of Europe as a final wake-up call. If the upcoming summit fails to establish genuine, enforceable mechanisms, we'll all be facing endless extreme seasons.

What does this mean for our region?

• Water scarcity: Changes in the polar climate affect ocean currents, which in turn impact rainfall patterns in our region. This means drought periods could become both longer and more unpredictable.
• Direct impact on energy: Intensifying heatwaves will place unprecedented strain on our electricity grids. This means clean energy strategies are no longer a luxury but a necessity for maintaining our way of life.
• Food security: Growing seasons worldwide will be affected, creating a supply chain issue that no country can escape, even if it's an oil producer.

I'm not speaking here as a theoretical expert, but as someone who has followed these issues for years. Just yesterday, I was reading reports on the impact of the snowstorms in Connecticut, and it reminded me that a decade ago, the debate was still about ‘whether climate change is real or not’. Today, the debate needs to be about ‘how we protect our children from this madness of volatility’.

A few days ago, I spoke with a senior official in the environmental sector, and he told me, verbatim: ‘The problem is that climate change isn't coming slowly as we predicted. It's forcing its way into our lives right now, and we saw it with our own eyes in the severity of the snow this year and the fires that simultaneously hit parts of Australia and Canada.’

The conclusion is clear: we are facing a new phase of climate change. What used to be called ‘future projections’ has become ‘today's weather forecast’. With the UN Climate Change Conference 2025 approaching, hope rests on governments finally moving beyond political manoeuvring and looking at the numbers. The snow that blanketed Connecticut wasn't just a pretty picture; it was a hefty bill paid by taxpayers there – a bill we might all end up paying in one way or another if we don't start taking this issue seriously now.