Climate change is no conspiracy theory: How “climate volatility” has upended North America’s snow patterns—and what to expect at the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference

Believe it or not, while we here in the Gulf were bracing for a record-breaking heatwave at the start of summer, people in Connecticut were digging their cars out from under snowdrifts that, in some areas, exceeded 90 centimetres last March. I’m not telling you this as a simple odd-weather story. I’m telling you this to make it clear that climate change is no longer just a term we hear on the news—"climate volatility" has become the new normal we all live with.

This past winter on the US East Coast was like something out of a cartoon. In just one month, temperatures plunged to record lows not seen in decades, with some cities recording their coldest days since 1904. As I was tracking the numbers and speaking with colleagues in the Environment and Climate Change field, everyone agreed: this wasn’t just an "ordinary winter". The snowstorms weren’t just snowfall; they came on violently and unpredictably, leaving road authorities scrambling to cope with the sheer volume.

A brutal winter shatters the illusion of stability

In February alone, Connecticut saw snow amounts equivalent to what used to fall over three entire winter seasons a decade ago. Why does this matter to us? Because this is exactly 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—driven by warmer ocean waters—you get storms unlike anything we knew in the past.

This is what we’re seeing across the globe. Canada faced the same story, with Environment And Climate Change Canada issuing unprecedented warnings about the dangers of sharp temperature swings. No one in the world is immune to this impact, whether we’re in Riyadh, Doha, or New York.

Climate Summit 2025: The moment of truth

All this is unfolding as we stand on the brink of a pivotal global event: the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference. The upcoming summit will be different. After years of theoretical discussions, the world now recognises that climate change is a matter of national security before it’s an environmental issue. Expectations are that this conference will be far more serious than its predecessors, because the data from last winter has put everyone face to face with an undeniable truth: we can’t tackle climate volatility with yesterday’s methods.

Unfortunately, some parties are still betting that the problem is far removed from them. But I see what happened in Connecticut, Canada, and parts of Europe as a final warning. If the upcoming summit fails to establish real enforcement mechanisms, we’ll all be looking at an endless cycle of 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 dry spells could become unexpectedly longer or shorter.
• Direct impact on energy: Intensifying heatwaves will put unprecedented strain on our power grids. This means clean energy strategies are no longer a luxury—they’re a necessity for keeping life running as usual.
• Food security: The entire world will feel the impact on growing seasons. This is a supply chain no country can afford to be disconnected from, even if it’s an oil producer.

I’m not speaking here as a theoretical expert, but as someone who’s been following these issues for years. Just yesterday, I was reading reports on the impacts of the snowstorms in Connecticut, and it reminded me that the debate a decade ago was about whether climate change was real or not. Today, the debate should be about how we’re going to protect our children from this kind of crazy volatility.

A few days ago, I spoke with an official in the environmental sector, and he told me point-blank: "The problem is that climate change isn’t coming slowly as we expected. It’s forcing its way into our lives right now, and we’ve seen it with our own eyes in the severity of the snow this year and the fires that hit parts of Australia and Canada simultaneously."

The bottom line is clear: we’re entering a new phase of climate change. What used to be called "future projections" has now become "today’s weather forecast". And with the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference approaching, the hope is that governments will stop the political manoeuvring and look at the numbers. The snow that blanketed Connecticut wasn’t just a pretty photo op—it was a massive bill paid by taxpayers there, and it’s a bill we could all end up paying in one way or another if we don’t take this issue seriously now.