Tag Archives: World Meteorological Organization

Cost of Climate Change

On the Threshold of a 1.5°C World

While there is some disagreement as to whether we have crossed the 1.5°C threshhold set at COP 21 in Paris, scientists agree that we are on the brink and 2024 was the hottest year on record.

At COP 29 last November, Jim Skea, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) explained, “Children born today will not know a world without climate change. The IPCC has shown that we, and furthermore they, will live in a world marked by more intense storms, exceptional heatwaves, devastating floods and droughts, a world where food chains are disrupted, and where diseases reach new countries.”

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Cost of Climate Change

What Did COP 25 Achieve?

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The World’s 25th Conference of the Parties (COP 25) concluded in Madrid at 1:55 PM, Sunday, December 15, 2019, having accomplished enough to merit the pile of horse manure left at its doorstep. Nearly 27,000 international delegates participated. One of the resulting press releases proclaims, “Heads of UN agencies met for a high-level Leadership Dialogue on how to turn the tide on deforestation and committed to the common goal of helping countries reduce deforestation and improve forest management.” Another states “Italy and Mexico committed to stepped-up climate and environmental education.” There is no indication that these, or any other measures, will be implemented. In her final address in the main plenary hall, Greta Thunberg described COP 25 as “some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes.” Elizabeth May issued a press release calling the negotiations “brutal” and adding that any real progress was “blocked at this meeting by the negotiators representing Donald Trump’s America, Bolsonaro’s Brazil and Morrison’s Australia.”

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