Time for sun to set on addiction to fossil fuels

With 2015 now officially the hottest year on record, Payal Parekh looks at the Break Free Movement and how vital it is that the world ends its dependence on coal, oil, and gas    

There has never been a better time to break free from fossil fuels. Record-breaking global temperatures, plummeting fossil-fuel prices, historic investments in renewable energy, and global pressure to honour climate pledges are all coming together to create the ideal etting for this world-changing shift.

The shift could not be more urgent. The UN climate agreement forged in Paris last December reconfirmed the level of 2°C above pre-industrial levels as a hard upper limit for global warming, beyond which the consequences for the planet become catastrophic.