Honestly, we’re not trying to disparage the scientists and diplomats who spend their lives trying to avert the looming catastrophe of climate change. But it is disheartening that the best the United Nations body — called COP24 — came up with was, in essence, a rulebook in which the participating nations will report, accurately and transparently, who is releasing how much greenhouse gas. The Katowice meetings did not lead to new agreements on the most pressing aspect of global warming — the fact that it is occurring even faster than had been expected, according to a recent and especially dire United Nations report. That study, like others before it, state in no uncertain terms that the goal established in the 2015 Paris agreement — to limit atmospheric carbon levels to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels — is insufficient to save us from some of the more drastic effects of climate change. Without significant action, global temperatures will rise by up to 5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, according to the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization, likely causing massive upheaval from rising seas, extreme weather, collapsing food chains, droughts and floods.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times