Decades of climate impacts expected before temperatures can reverse
The United Nations Environment Programme issued a first-of-its-kind report Wednesday acknowledging that Earth will soon exceed the safe temperature threshold set by the 2015 Paris climate accord. The UN acknowledged Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming’s harms, according to the report.
UNEP scientists and U.N. officials recommend trying to limit excessive warming and then bring the temperature back down to the agreed-upon threshold, according to the report. The Associated Press, in a story by Seth Borenstein, characterized the shift as a “strategic retreat” in the global fight against climate change.
Continued burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving the warming, according to the report. UNEP scientists and officials warned that even with the recommended efforts to bring the temperature back down, the interim period will still bring decades of weather-related disasters, rising seas, species extinctions and melting ice and glaciers.
The 2015 Paris climate accord set the temperature threshold that the new UNEP report acknowledges Earth will soon exceed.