UN climate report slams global governments

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Monday report sticks to the usual script, warning that without drastic change, the world will see irreversible environmental damage. The UN agency zeroed in on the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, saying governments around the world have failed to follow through on promises aimed at keeping global temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius over the next century. The report did not pin the blame on any particular country. It cited global warming as a cause of more intense wildfires and hurricanes, longer droughts, and more floods.

Does it offer any practical steps? The report recommends that countries quickly move away from the use of fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy like wind and solar power, and it urged financial support for poorer countries that would struggle to do so. It highlighted risky experimental methods of reducing temperature alongside simpler steps, like fixing methane leaks in mines and landfills.

Dig deeper: Read John Dawson’s analysis in Beginnings of the similarly catastrophic claims in last year’s climate change report.