Online
\nNew York
\nWith the direst warnings yet of impending environmental disaster still ringing in their ears, representatives from nearly 200 nations gather Sunday in Poland to firm up their plan to prevent catastrophic climate change.
\nThe UN climate summit comes at a crucial juncture in mankind\u2019s response to planetary warming. The smaller, poorer nations that will bare its devastating brunt are pushing for richer states to make good on the promises they made in the 2015 Paris agreement.
\nIn Paris three years ago, countries committed to limit global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and to the safer cap of 1.5C if at all possible.
\nBut with only a single degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has already seen a crescendo of deadly wildfires, heatwaves and hurricanes made more destructive by rising seas.
\nJohan Rockstrom, designated director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said the talks in the Silesian mining city of Katowice were crucial in nailing down how the Paris promises will work in practice.
\nDelegates at the COP24 talks \u201ccannot and will not discuss if governments worldwide must achieve rapid greenhouse gas emission reductions to limit climate risks \u2014 but how they can do this,\u201d he said.
\nIn Katowice, nations must agree to a rulebook palatable to all 183 states who have ratified the Paris deal.
\nThis is far from a given: the dust is still settling from US President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to ditch the Paris accord.
\nG20 leaders agreed a final communique after their summit in Buenos Aires, declaring that the Paris Agreement was \u201cirreversible\u201d.
\nBut it said the US \u201creiterates its decision to withdraw\u201d from the landmark accord.
\nEven solid progress in Katowice on the Paris goals may not be enough to prevent runaway global warming, as a series of major climate reports have outlined.
\nJust this week, the UN\u2019s environment programme said the voluntary national contributions agreed in Paris would have to triple if the world was to cap global warming below 2C.
\nFor 1.5C, they must increase fivefold.
\nA group of over 90 independent climate scientists in October said fossil fuel use must be slashed by half in the next 12 years if we have any hope of hitting the 1.5C target.
\nWhile the data are clear, a global political consensus over how to tackle climate change remains elusive.
\nLaurence Tubiana is CEO of the European Climate Foundation and, as France\u2019s top negotiator, one of the main architects of the 2015 treaty.
\n\u201cKatowice may show us if there will be any domino effect\u201d following the US withdrawal, she told AFP.
\nBrazil\u2019s strongman president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, for one, has promised to follow the American lead during his campaign.
\nEven the most strident climate warnings \u2014 spiralling temperatures, global sea-level rises, mass crop failures \u2014 are something that many developed nations will only have to tackle in future.
\nBut many other countries are already dealing with the droughts, higher seas and catastrophic storms climate change is exacerbating right now.
\n\u201cA failure to act now risks pushing us beyond a point of no return with catastrophic consequences for life as we know it,\u201d said Amjad Abdulla, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, of the UN talks.
\nAnd Gebru Jember Endalew, chair of the Least Developed Nations group of negotiators at the COP24, said \u201cinternational cooperation is the only way to address the global threat of climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Online New York With the direst warnings yet of impending environmental disaster still ringing in their ears, representatives from nearly 200 nations gather Sunday in Poland to firm up their plan to prevent catastrophic climate change. The UN climate summit comes at a crucial juncture in mankind\u2019s response to planetary warming. The smaller, poorer nations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n