“There is no documented historic precedent” for the action needed at this moment, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wrote in its 700-page report on the impacts of global warming of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.5 degrees Celsius. If humans fail, rising sea levels , more devastating droughts and more damaging storms will occur threatening life on the Earth. Famine, disease, economic tolls and refugee crises are also feared.
Under the Paris climate agreement, nations set a goal of limiting warming to 3.6°F, or 2 °C, increase in global average temperatures, with ambitions of a stricter limit of 2.7°F, or 1.5°C of warming. The UN asked the IPCC to figure out what it would take to hit the 1.5°C target, and what’s in store for the world if we did pull it off. Staying at or below 1.5°C requires slashing global greenhouse gas emissions 45 percent below 2010 levels by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. Our current coal consumption must be reduced by one-third. But in fact we expect energy-related CO2 emissions will increase once again in 2018 after growing in 2017. This is not good ! In short, things will get worse. Time is running out.
