200 nations to gather as UN report lays out options to halt climate crisis
- Talks begin on Monday to approve the summary of a huge report detailing how to stop carbon pollution overheating the planet and threatening life
- ‘The impacts are costly and mounting … this report will supply the answers as to what we need if we’re serious’, senior analyst said
Nearly 200 nations gather on Monday to confront a question that will outlive Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: how do we stop carbon pollution overheating the planet and threatening life as we know it?
The answer is set to arrive on April 4 after closed-door, virtual negotiations approve the summary of a massive report detailing options for drawing down greenhouse gases and extracting them out of thin air.
“The science is crystal clear, the impacts are costly and mounting, but we still have some time to close the window and get ahead of the worst of them if we act now,” said Alden Meyer, a senior analyst at climate and energy think tank E3G.
“This report will supply the answers as to what we need if we’re serious about getting there.”
In August 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) laid out the physical science: changes in global warming and sea level rise, along with shifts in the frequency, duration and intensity of cyclones, heatwaves, droughts and other forms of extreme weather.
That was the first instalment of a three-part assessment, the sixth since 1990. It projected that Earth’s surface temperature will rise 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, perhaps within a decade.
