“Global boiling”: Billions already suffer in heat over 1.5 degree limit
Many people live with temperatures above the Paris Agreement’s ceiling for global warming as land heats faster than the oceans. ALISTER DOYLE, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports…
Essay: Four reasons to be hopeful about the planned global plastics treaty
As negotiations kick off, ELIZABETH KIRK, a professor of international environmental law, looks – in an article published on The Conversation – at what the world-first treaty for ending plastic pollution will actually mean…
Climate change set to drive more deadly heat in South Asia
Dhaka, BangladeshThomson Reuters Foundation Deadly heatwaves in South Asia are likely to become more common in the future, with the region’s exposure to lethal heat stress potentially nearly tripling if global warming isn’t curbed, researchers said. But the threat could be halved if the world meets a goal set under the Paris Agreement on climate […]
Pandemic delays leave many nations facing climate action catch-up in 2021
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation Less than half of countries that committed to strengthening their climate action targets in 2020 did so by the end of last year, as the pandemic slowed climate diplomacy and efforts to update national plans, a developing-nation group said on Friday. A tracker run by the Climate Vulnerable Forum showed 73 nations […]
About 150 nations due to deliver stronger climate plans in 2020, tracker shows
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation More than three-quarters of countries have indicated they will make stronger commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change by the end of 2020, despite the economic strain of the coronavirus pandemic, a new tracker showed this week. According to the tool, launched by the Climate Vulnerable Forum of developing countries, 151 governments […]
Climate-menaced nations say survival depends on stronger 2020 action
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation Developing countries at risk from wilder weather and rising seas on Wednesday urged all governments to meet a deadline to deliver stronger national climate action plans to the United Nations by the end of 2020, stressing that their survival depended on it. About 195 nations committed under the 2015 Paris Agreement […]
Political ‘retreat’ on climate action harms all nations, says UN climate chief
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Rich nations are failing on promises to help poorer ones meet the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, even though such help would be “not charity but a global act of self-interest”, UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa said on Monday. In an unusually pointed speech, she decried the erosion […]
UN delays crucial climate summit for a year, cites pandemic
Reuters The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the United Nations to delay until late 2021 a crucial climate summit that had been scheduled for Britain this year, officials said on Thursday. This year’s meeting, known as the COP26 summit, had been billed as the most important climate change summit since the 2015 talks that produced the […]
Global finance must “align” in climate change fight, says UK minister
United NationsThomson Reuters Foundation The world of finance must line up behind the fight against global warming, a top British climate change official said, calling for a concerted effort to turn “billions into trillions” of dollars driving the transition to a green economy. From state aid agencies and international development banks to insurers and pension […]
Meaningless or sensible? Net zero by 2050 divides climate community
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation When the European Commission unveiled a draft law this week that would make binding a target to cut the bloc’s planet-warming emissions to “net zero” by 2050, it exposed a sharp divide among supporters of climate action. While that increasingly popular goal might sound ambitious, young activists, including Greta Thunberg, have […]