Climate promises must be more than smoke and mirrors
THIS year will be one of the warmest on record. Over the last decade, greenhouse-gas emissions have accelerated, and the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased in the past year at the fastest rate in nearly three decades, reaching a level that is 15% higher than in 1990. As the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasises, the disconnect between an intensifying climate crisis and stalled international negotiations has never been greater.
Needless to say, a lot is riding on next year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, which could shape strategies to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions until 2050. But the summit is unlikely to deliver the global agreement that is so badly needed, unless world leaders broaden their focus to include not only emissions reduction, but also carbon pricing.
