1.5C global warming threshold to be passed within a decade
Scientists are ‘alarmed’ by acceleration to ‘hotter, hellish future’
The world will burn through its remaining carbon budget in less than ten years unless nations significantly reduce greenhouse gas pollution, a new study has found.
The Global Carbon Budget, a yearly assessment of how much the world can afford to emit to stay within its warming targets, found that greenhouse gas pollution will hit a record high this year, due to a 1% increase in carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.
To avoid passing critical warming thresholds and triggering catastrophic climate impacts, the planet “can release no more than 380 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the coming decades – an amount equal to about nine years of current emissions”, the report warned.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Holding warming at 1.5C “represents our best chance at avoiding irreversible changes to the Earth’s climate system and protecting vulnerable groups of people and wildlife”, explained Popular Science.
Beyond 1.5C, “extinctions are forecast to rise steeply, coral diversity will shrink by 90% or more”, said Australia’s ABC News. “Extreme weather events – droughts, floods, cyclones, bushfires – will intensify in parts of the world, sea-level rise will accelerate,” it added. As a result “millions more people will be displaced” and “crossing tipping points leading to ecosystem and ice-sheet collapse will become more likely”.
Yet “even as scientists warn of the world’s dangerous trajectory”, leaders at Cop27 have “advocated for natural gas as a ‘transition fuel’ that would ease the world’s switch from fossil energy to renewables”, said The Washington Post.
It added that “this rhetoric has alarmed scientists and activists” who believe that expanding natural gas production could “harm vulnerable communities and push the planet toward a hotter, hellish future”.
Meanwhile, a “glimmer of hope” comes from emissions produced by the destruction of forests, said The Guardian. These have been “declining slowly over the last two decades”, and “when this decline is taken into account, global carbon emissions have been essentially flat since 2015”.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Nigeria's worsening rate of maternal mortality
Under the radar Economic crisis is making hospitals unaffordable, with women increasingly not receiving the care they need
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Elevating Earth Day into a national holiday is not radical — it's practical'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
UAW scores historic win in South at VW plant
Speed Read Volkswagen workers in Tennessee have voted to join the United Auto Workers union
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
What is rock flour and how can it help to fight climate change?
The Explainer Glacier dust to the rescue
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Arid Gulf states hit with year's worth of rain
Speed Read The historic flooding in Dubai is tied to climate change
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The growing thirst for camel milk
Under the radar Climate change and health-conscious consumers are pushing demand for nutrient-rich product – and the growth of industrialised farming
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Why curbing methane emissions is tricky in fight against climate change
The Explainer Tackling the second most significant contributor to global warming could have an immediate impact
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
How the EU undermines its climate goals with animal farming subsidies
Under the radar Bloc's agricultural policy incentivises carbon-intensive animal farming over growing crops, despite aims to be carbon-neutral
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Why are people and elephants fighting in Sri Lanka?
Under The Radar Farmers encroaching into elephant habitats has led to deaths on both sides
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
How climate change is contributing to global unrest
In Depth Some experts argue that global warming can be tied to rising levels of violence around the world
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Why last-chance tourism is the latest controversial travel trend
The Explainer Race to visit places threatened by climate change 'before it's too late'
By Austin Chen, The Week UK Published