The 2.5 million square mile rainforest is so vast it creates its own rainfall and is home to 10% of the world’s species.
But rising temperatures and increasing drought are bringing it ever closer to crossing the threshold from lush rainforest to arid savannah.
“The recent evidence has been quite alarming. It really does look like we’re closing in on a place where a relatively ...
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The study examined four possible scenarios for future carbon emissions, and found increased risk of El Niño events in all four.
This means El Niño events and associated climate extremes are now more likely “regardless of any significant mitigation actions” to reduce emissions, the researchers warn.
...
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Although Africa has contributed relatively little to the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, the continent has suffered some of the world’s heaviest impacts of climate change. This will only get worse, according to a new United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
Jean Paul Adam, who heads the climate change division at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, ...
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As required by the UK Climate Change Act 2008, the government has today submitted the Third Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) to Parliament.
Professor Richard Betts MBE, who led this team, says that “One of the key conclusions from the University of Exeter’s work was that current worldwide policies could result in up to 4°C warming by 2100.”
“The agreements made at the ...
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A few days before Christmas, Super-typhoon Rai – known locally as Odette – ravaged the Philippines. Lost lives continue to climb two weeks on. Vast numbers of buildings were destroyed – from houses to schools; food crops lost to flooding.
On average, 20 storms and typhoons hit the Philippines each year and they are growing progressively more destructive. The culprit is greenhouse-gas emissions ...
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“We need drastic, radical emissions reductions, and on top of that we need some CDR,” said Glen Peters, research director at the Centre for International Climate Research.
There are basically two ways to extract CO₂ from air.
One is to boost nature’s capacity to absorb and stockpile carbon. Healing degraded forests, restoring mangroves, industrial-scale tree planting, boosting ...
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Today’s emission reduction pledges cover less than 20% of the gap that needs to be closed by 2030 to keep a 1.5 °C path within reach.
For all the advances being made by renewables and electric mobility, 2021 is seeing a large rebound in coal and oil use. Largely for this reason, it is also seeing the second-largest annual increase in CO2 emissions in history.
Public spending on sustainable energy ...
Read moreNational net zero emission targets could, if fully implemented, reduce best estimates of projected global average temperature increase to 2.0–2.4 °C by 2100, bringing the Paris Agreement temperature goal within reach.
A total of 131 countries are discussing, have announced or have adopted net zero targets, covering 72% of global emissions.
Currently implemented policies will increase warming ...
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Earth’s temperature is projected to hit 1.5˚C or 1.6˚C around 2030 in all five scenarios—a full decade earlier than a similar prediction the IPCC made less than three years ago.
The news gets worse.
By mid-century, the 1.5C threshold has been breached across the board—by a tenth of a degree along the most ambitious pathway, and by nearly a full degree at the opposite extreme.
The glimmer ...
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“We find that there is a substantial mismatch between likely warming rates and research coverage. 1.5 °C and 2 °C scenarios are substantially overrepresented. More likely higher end warming scenarios of 3 °C and above, despite potential catastrophic impacts, are severely neglected.“
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Carbon emissions are set to hit an all-time high by 2023 as just two percent of pandemic recovery finance is being spent on clean energy.
“Not only is clean energy investment still far from what’s needed to put the world on a path to reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century, it’s not even enough to prevent global emissions from surging to a new record”.
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Chair of CCAG, Sir David King said: “I believe we have five years left to get on top of this global problem. We began talking seriously about climate change in 1992, yet we are now in a worse position with growing emissions and rising risks—watching greenhouse gases increase year after year.”
“But we’ve also let this problem get to the point where rapid ...
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Species extinction, more widespread disease, unliveable heat, ecosystem collapse, cities menaced by rising seas—these and other devastating climate impacts are accelerating and bound to become painfully obvious before a child born today turns 30.
On current trends, we’re heading for 3˚C at best.
Prolonged warming even beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius could produce “progressively serious, ...
Read moreThe nightmare scenario: Year 2100, global waming exceeds 4˚C:
→ Massive frequent wildfires
→ Dead coral reefs
→ Frequent prolonged droughts
→ Increased air pollution
→ Ice-free Arctic summers
→ Rapid sea level rise
→ Abandoned small island nations
→ Billions of people suffering water stress
→ Stronger cyclones
→ More frequent mega-cyclones causing ...
