The world's chances of avoiding the worst ravages of climate breakdown are diminishing rapidly as we enter "uncharted territory of destruction" through our failure to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The United in Science report states that governments and businesses have not been changing fast enough. The consequences are already being seen in extreme weather around the world and we are in danger of provoking tipping points in the climate system that will cause more rapid and irreversible shifts.
The recent flooding in Pakistan, which the country's climate minister claimed had covered a third of the country in water, is another example of extreme weather that is devastating swathes of the globe. Extreme weather events this summer in Europe, China, the US, and parts of Africa reflect the increasing occurrence of extreme weather.
The secretary general of the United Nations said there was nothing natural about the scale of the disasters. They are the price of addiction. According to the United in Science report, climate impacts are heading into a state of destruction.
Within the next five years, the world is unlikely to see temperatures more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. At the UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow last November, governments agreed to focus on holding temperatures within the 1.5C limit, but their pledges and actions to cut emissions fell short.
Some governments have returned to fossil fuels since the invasion of Ukraine and high gas prices. Every year, we double down on fossil fuel addiction, even as the symptoms get worse.
The report found that the world was not adapting to the climate crisis. Rich countries failed to deliver on their promises. He said that it was a scandal that developed countries didn't take adaptation seriously.
He said rich countries should give at least 40 billion dollars a year to help countries adapt.
The question of adaptation to the impacts of extreme weather, and the "loss and damage" that vulnerable countries are experiencing, is likely to be one of the key issues at the upcoming Cop 27 UN climate talks in Egypt. The fragile consensus reached at Glasgow has been jeopardized by the turmoil in the Middle East.
Tasneem Essop is the executive director of the Climate Action Network. Millions of people are facing recurring climate disasters because of the United in Science report. The addiction to fossil fuels by greedy corporations and rich countries is leading to losses and damages for communities who have done the least to cause the current climate crisis.
The Cop 27 conference in Egypt needs to agree to new funding to help those in the global south who are experiencing the climate emergency.
Researchers from Oxford University said that shifting the global economy to a low-carbon footing would save the world at least $12tn by the year 2050. Economies dependent on fossil fuels are vulnerable to rising gas prices.
The study found that moving quickly to renewable power and other forms of clean energy would benefit the economy as the costs of green technology have fallen.
A co-author of the paper said that past models predicting high costs for transitioning to zero-carbon energy have deterred companies from investing and made governments nervous about setting policies that will accelerate the energy transition Clean energy costs have fallen more quickly than expected.
The past seven years have been the hottest on record and there is a 50% chance that the annual mean temperature will be 1.5C higher than the average.
There is a 98% chance that at least one year in the next five will be hotter than the hottest year on record.
Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels went back to pre-pandemic levels last year after a brief dip during the Covid-19 epidemic.
Global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is not possible because national pledges on greenhouse gas emissions are insufficient.
$200m is lost a day due to climate-related disasters.
Less than half of countries have early warning systems for extreme weather, despite the fact that 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in areas that are vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis.
The climate system can't be ruled out as global heating increases.
More than 1.5 billion people will be exposed to three-month average temperatures of at least 35C by the century's end.
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