The risk from heat waves is about more than intensity – being able to cool off is essential, and that’s hard to find in many low-income areas of the world.
The first IPCC conference on cities has highlighted the challenges of reconciling science, urban practices and politics. But it was an important recognition of cities’ leading role in climate action.
A narrow debate of what countries should pay to respond to climate change obscures a bigger moral discussion that touches on economics, ethics and people’s relationship to the natural world.
The sooner nations stop viewing emissions reduction as a burden to be shared, and more as an opportunity to be grasped, the sooner real climate progress will be achieved.