Welcome to boiling world and climate extreme planet. The world is on track to cross the 1.5°C global warming threshold, likely within the next few years, according to a major new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report released today (2/9). Limiting Overshoot finds that even the most optimistic scenario now points to a peak temperature rise of 1.8°C.
A glacial collapse that resulted in a flash flood in the Nepal-Tibet border shows that climate delay is proving to be deadlier and more destructive than world leaders admit, climate groups said. Disasters like this are becoming more frequent and more deadly as the Himalayas warm and glaciers destabilize.
Climate campaigners warned that record high temperatures and a strong El Niño is resulting in severe drought in many countries, hitting crop yields and raising food prices. 350.org urged governments to move fast to protect farming communities and consumers, and mobilize the necessary funds through higher, permanent taxes on fossil fuel profits.
As a strong El Niño develops on top of already record global temperatures, leading climate scientists and policy experts warned today that media coverage attributing extreme weather primarily to El Niño is missing the real story, and that the mounting cost of climate disasters is falling hardest on the people least responsible for causing them.
Fossil fuel companies must be held responsible for the extreme heat gripping Europe by paying permanent windfall taxes to help cover the mounting health costs. A new study by World Weather Attribution found that climate change is “unequivocally” the driving force behind Europe’s record-breaking heatwave.
As G7 leaders depart Évian-les-Bains, 350 says the summit has once again proven that the G7 is not fit for purpose and is a forum that exists to protect the interests of rich countries and fossil fuel companies rather than to deliver the rapid, fair transition the world urgently needs.
