Stanisland Magazine

The United Nations says we are quickly running out of time to achieve climate goals.

According to the UN Framework for Climate Change (UNFCCC), we are rapidly losing sight of net-zero targets.

The release of a report by the organisation uses the Paris Agreement to stock take the scale of mitigation to evade risks posed by climatic decline. It recognises that swift action may be disruptive, but necessary to achieve a total community change led by “all parties.”

It further notes that, “global emissions are not in line with modelled global pathways” set by the accords in France some years ago.

UN co-facilitator Harald Winkler remarked on progress made by signatories of the accords: “As the report’s technical findings show, much more is needed now, on all fronts and by all actors to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement.”

Executive Secretary of the UN on Climate Change, Simon Stiell said: “I urge governments to carefully study the findings of the report and ultimately understand what it means for them.”

Elsewhere, the United States’ president Joe Biden gave a briefing where he also remarked on the possibility of irreversible temperatures: “The only existential threat humanity faces even more frightening than a nuclear war is global warming going above 1.5 degrees in the next 20 – 10 years,”

According to Europe’s Copernicus, August 2023 was 1.5 Celsius hotter than preindustrial levels for 1850-1900.

Photo: Michael Held