‘HUGELY DISAPPOINTING’

Climate Promises Are Falling Way Short, U.N. Warns in Grim New Report

Countries, especially the U.S. and China, must cut their greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate challenges, the report says.

Two weeks before a United Nations climate summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, the U.N. released a report on Wednesday telling nations they have not stepped up enough to save our earth and predicting horrific climate challenges like floods, drought, wildfires, heat waves, along with the extinction of entire species of plants, insects, and mammals. If countries continue their current patterns and there is no heavy cutback of greenhouse gas emissions, we’re in for a hotter planet. By 2100, the U.N. report on Wednesday said, the earth is set to heat up by about an average of 2.1 to 2.9 degrees Celsius; the 2015 Paris agreement hoped to only reach a 1.5-degree warming. According to The New York Times, this temperature increase would cross the line scientists have warned would result in worsening “catastrophic climate impacts.” Out of 193 countries who promised to take more action, 26 have taken more “ambitious plans,” The New York Times reported. Taking only some action as the earth’s biggest polluters, China and the United States have not made any more climate commitments so far and negotiations have stalled for months. “The latest U.N. report once again shows that those most responsible for the climate crisis remain unwilling to face up to their responsibilities,” Sudanese-British billionaire businessman and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim said. “Unless urgent action is taken to hold richer countries to account, the developing world will continue to foot the bill, at the cost of numerous lives.”