¡®We Declare That Planet Earth Is Facing A Climate Emergency,¡¯ Warn More Than 11,000 Scientists
2018 saw unprecedented global carbon pollution of more than 41 billion tonnes.
There is a climate emergency in the world and ¡°untold suffering¡± is to follow due to global warming. This has been warned by more than 11,000 scientists, even as another team said Paris carbon-cutting pledges are "too little, too late".
The European Union, in the meanwhile, confirmed that last month was the warmest October ever registered.
AFP
Three-quarters of national commitments under the Paris climate accord to curb greenhouse gases will not even slow the accelerating pace of global warming, according to a report by news agency AFP. The sobering assessment came just a day after President Donald Trump formally notified the United Nations of the US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris climate pact.
"With few exceptions, the pledges of rich, middle-income and poor nations are insufficient to address climate change," said Robert Watson, who chaired both the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UN's science body for biodiversity.
BCCL
"As they stand, the pledges are far too little, too late."
In parallel, more than 11,000 scientists sounded a five-bell alarm in the peer-reviewed journal BioScience, noting that the world had failed to act on global warming despite the accumulation of evidence over 30 years.
"We declare, clearly and unequivocally, that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency," the statement said.
AFP
Emissions of the gases warming Earth's surface must drop 50 percent by 2030 and to "net zero" -- with no additional carbon entering the atmosphere by mid-century -- if the Paris treaty's goal of capping warming at 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius is to be met, the IPCC concluded last year.
And yet 2018 saw unprecedented global carbon pollution of more than 41 billion tonnes, two percent higher that 2017, also a record year.
Global temperatures have increased 1 C above pre-industrial levels -- enough to boost the impact of deadly heatwaves, floods and superstorms -- and are on track to rise another two or three degrees by the end of the century.
