Current Plans to Stem Climate Change Will Still Lead to Catastrophe, U.N. Warns

As the world has reeled from crisis after crisis in recent years, world leaders have, with only a few exceptions, repeatedly insisted that they remain committed to tackling climate change. But they are failing to keep that promise, says a bleak new United Nations report, and the globe may soon feel the dire effects of inaction—including temperatures that rise to double the target set in the Paris Agreement—without “rapid and transformational action.” The report, from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), points directly at most of the world’s largest economies as the chief culprits in the global failure to stem greenhouse gas emissions. Only five countries in the G20—a forum representing 20 of the world’s biggest economies—have committed to eliminating their carbon footprints. Seven, including the U.S., Brazil and Canada, are failing to meet even their feeble commitments made under the Paris Agreement four years ago while still others, like Russia and India, are keeping their promises but only because they set low targets at the outset. Collectively, if countries around the world meet their current commitments, it would still result in more than 3°C of warming over pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, blowing past the “well below” 2°C target set in the Paris Agreement, according to the report, which comes ahead of this year’s U.N. climate conference in Madrid. Last year, a landm...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change Source Type: news