GLASGOW: UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa told the formal opening of the UN climate summit COP26 in Glasgow on Sunday that the world must deliver on large-scale reductions of emissions to limit global warming to 1.5 C, or “accept that humanity faces a bleak future on this planet.”
Her comments came as the World Meteorological Organization published its 2021 report on the State of the Global Climate in which it warned “extreme events,” such as Hurricane Ida in the US and the Algeria wildfires which killed 90 people this year, “are the new norm.”
The report, which includes data on temperature, CO2 emissions, rain fall, and sea levels, right up to the end of September 2021, said global warming levels will increase by the end of this century far in excess of the Paris Agreement targets of 1.5 to 2 degrees unless action is taken at COP26.