The potential paths for climate change roadmap
Experts say government intervention will be key in tackling environmental crisis
The next ten years will be “pivotal” in protecting the future of the planet, Boris Johnson has warned following the publication of a UN report that says human activitiy is “unequivocally” causing climate change.
The prime minister described the latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) as “sobering reading”, while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the findings were a “code red for humanity”.
The UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, agrees that “the need for action on climate change is urgent”. But in a joint article for The Times, Vallance and the Met Office’s chief scientist, Professor Stephen Belcher, stress that “there is still time to act”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What happens next?
Experts say that tackling climate change will require a concerted and collaborative effort by governments across the globe. One crucial step will be to curb carbon dioxide emissions, the main contributor of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The bid to achieve this goal should include translating “a temperature target into a cumulative carbon target”, tweets Professor Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University.
The IPCC report says that global temperatures are likely to rise by 1.5C over the next two decades, but that providing a framework that links carbon emissions to temperature increases could help clarify the level of regulation needed to tackle the problem.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Real-time data, rather than retrospective tracking, should be integral to this “fair and transparent approach”, argue Vallance and Belcher in The Times. The two government experts recommend that “a live dashboard” be set up to track carbon emissions.
“An objective system could directly measure greenhouse gas concentrations and use modelling to infer emissions in near real time,” they write. “Such a measurement system would chart the immediate effectiveness of mitigation policies and allow further targeted action in polluting sectors.”
The pair also call on national leaders to urgently revise their policies to reach net zero emissions. “Countries should plot mechanisms for scaling up and deploying technologies that already exist, such as wind and solar renewables and electrification of transport,” say Vallance and Belcher.
Commentators have noted that increased government regulation to tackle climate change will be likely to impact daily life.
In an article for The Telegraph, former Labour MP Tom Harris says that “like the pandemic, climate change demands state intervention in all our lives, legal restrictions on what we can and cannot do”.
But many of those changes - or “innovations” - require “minimum personal sacrifice”, writes Harris, and may include “new construction techniques, a step-change in the rollout of electric cars [and] a reset of our wasteful throw-away culture”.
The global perspective
With the UK contributing less than 2% of annual global carbon emissions, achieving net zero by 2050 “is simply not going to happen unless the worst polluters, like China, India and the US, show much bigger reductions”, says The Telegraph editorial board.
But if “cajoling countries that are unwilling to listen” is to prove a “fruitless exercise”, the paper continues, “adapting our lives to cope with inevitable warming is just as important as identifying the cause”.
Such lessons of adaptation and resilience may be learned from nations already being severely impacted by climate change. In an article for The Guardian, Greenpeace’s head of Pacific, Joseph Moeono-Kolio, points out that these communities “don’t have the luxury of giving up, tired and fatigued as we already are”.
Moeono-Kolio argues that climate talks and agreements should better reflect a geopolitical landscape in which poorer countries are generally contributing less to increasing emissions yet suffering more from the effects.
Pacific leaders have not “backed down” in spite of the “patronising disregard” that “high-emitting, wealthy countries” have previously shown towards the climate crisis, he continues. And “we will continue to pressure the world to lift its ambition, using every diplomatic, financial and legal avenue at our disposal”.
On a more individual level, “holding elected officials accountable” will be key in battling the crisis, writes professor of atmospheric science Michael E. Mann in Time. Climate change can’t be solved “without leadership from our elective representatives”, he says, so “let this latest report be our rallying cry” to demand action.
Climate change is expected to top the agenda when international leaders meet in Glasgow in November at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as Cop26.
US climate envoy John Kerry tweeted this week that the summit “must be a turning point in this crisis”, while French leader Emmanuel Macron has called for an international agreement that is “up to the urgency of this moment”.
Julia O'Driscoll is the engagement editor. She covers UK and world news, as well as writing lifestyle and travel features. She regularly appears on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast, and hosted The Week's short-form documentary podcast, “The Overview”. Julia was previously the content and social media editor at sustainability consultancy Eco-Age, where she interviewed prominent voices in sustainable fashion and climate movements. She has a master's in liberal arts from Bristol University, and spent a year studying at Charles University in Prague.
-
The Onion is having a very ironic laugh with Infowars
The Explainer The satirical newspaper is purchasing the controversial website out of bankruptcy
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
'Rahmbo, back from Japan, will be looking for a job? Really?'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
What's next for electric vehicles under Trump?
Today's Big Question And what does that mean for Tesla's Elon Musk?
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
How safe are cruise ships in storms?
The Explainer The vessels are always prepared
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Biden visits Amazon, says climate legacy irreversible
Speed Read Nobody can reverse America's 'clean energy revolution,' said the president, despite the incoming Trump administration's promises to dismantle climate policies
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Climate change is threatening Florida's Key deer
The Explainer Questions remain as to how much effort should be put into saving the animals
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Is Cop29 a 'waste of time'?
Today's Big Question World leaders stay away as spectre of Donald Trump haunts flagship UN climate summit
By The Week UK Published
-
At least 95 dead in Spain flash floods
Speed Read Torrential rainfall caused the country's worst flooding since 1996
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Earth's carbon sinks are collapsing
Under the Radar Forests and soil are not operating as usual
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Why the Earth's water cycle is under threat
Under The Radar Disturbances in the system that moves water around the world place more than half of global food production at risk
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Climate safe havens may be a thing of the past
Under the radar Safe spaces are few and far between
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published