Author of key UN climate report speaks out on need for urgency.
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The world is dragging its heels when it comes to responding to climate change.
An author of a key UN report that will outline the imposing threat of global warming recently stated that countries are “nowhere near on track” to meet their commitment to avoid temperatures rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period.
The goal was set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, when international leaders agreed to curb the global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above the era prior to mass industrialization, noted the report. But the aspiration was to limit this to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Frighteningly, scientists have pointed out, the world has already warmed by around 1 degree Celsius in the last century, fueling sea level rises, heat waves, storms, and the decline of coral reefs. Meanwhile, the adoption of new technologies and practices has not increased to meet the challenge.
Some leaders asserted at the UN General Assembly in New York this week that the challenge to fend off climate change is that much harder without the support of the US, which recently backed out of the Paris agreement under the Trump administration. The US is now the only country to do so.
Norway, one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, recommitted at the assembly to transition from fossil fuels faster, embrace electric cars, and halt deforestation.
The report arrives just weeks after António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said in an address to global leaders that the world has less than two years to avoid “runaway climate change," noted The Hill.
Should countries not respond with urgency, a 1.5 degrees Celsius warming means that the Arctic would be ice-free in summer, half of land-based creatures would be severely affected, and deadly heat waves would become far more common, noted the report.