29 June, 2017

World has three years left to stop dangerous climate change, warn experts

Avoiding dangerous levels of climate change is still just about possible, but will require unprecedented effort and coordination from governments, businesses, citizens and scientists in the next three years, a group of prominent experts has warned.

Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres: “We
 stand at the doorway of being able to bend the
emissions curve downwards by 2020.”
Warnings over global warming have picked up pace in recent months, even as the political environment has grown chilly with Donald Trump’s formal announcement of the US’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement. This year’s weather has beaten high temperature records in some regions, and 2014, 2015 and 2016 were the hottest years on record.

But while temperatures have risen, global carbon dioxide emissions have stayed broadly flat for the past three years. This gives hope that the worst effects of climate change – devastating droughts, floods, heatwaves and irreversible sea level rises – may be avoided, according to a letter published in the journal Nature this week.


Read the story by Fiona Harvey on The Guardian - “World has three years left to stop dangerous climate change, warn experts.”

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