New Reports Ahead of COP29 Show World Spinning Its Wheels on Climate Action

"The currently projected warming of about 3 degrees Celsius is “too hot to handle,” says Ko Barrett, a NOAA climate advisor and deputy secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization."

"A trio of reports released ahead of next month’s COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan all show that the existing national policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement will heat the planet by close to 3 degrees Celsius by 2100, as warming has accelerated in the past few years.

The plans “fall miles short of what’s needed to stop global heating from crippling every economy, and wrecking billions of lives and livelihoods across every country,” United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said Monday in New York as the organization released the latest evaluation of the national plans that are the backbone of the mitigation side of global climate action.

Under the nonbinding Paris pact, 198 countries agreed to develop plans to cut greenhouse gas pollution and refresh them every five years to reach the shared goal of limiting global warming close to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level, a target some scientists now say is out of reach."

Bob Berwyn reports for Inside Climate News October 28, 2024.

SEE ALSO:

"Planet-Warming Pollution Is Growing At The Fastest Rate In History, Scientists Say" (Washington Post)

"Future Of U.N. Climate Dialogue Threatened By Budget Shortfall" (Reuters)