The Coalition’s climate policy is consistent with a very dangerous 3°C of global warming. But one party is comfortably consistent with keeping warming at safe levels.
The main driver of climate change is the greenhouse effect – when certain gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap the sun’s heat and cause global warming.
Richard Drury/Getty Images
Marine heatwaves will happen so often that reefs will struggle to weather successive bleaching events.
The ongoing construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, near Kamloops, B.C., in September 2021. China’s clean energy plans could create problems for Canada.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
COP26 saw progress and announcements, but the commitments made by states — in addition to having to pass the test of implementation —fall far short of what the science requires.
The world promised progress at the Glasgow climate conference. Now it has to turn those promises into reality. A former senior UN official describes what to watch for in the coming year.
John Kerry and other delegates in discussions on the final day of COP26.
Robert Perry/EPA
In Paris, the French drafted ambitious texts and dared the biggest emitters to oppose it. In Glasgow, it’s the least developed countries which will have to do the most work.
Heading into the final days of the Glasgow summit, the goal of limiting heating below 2°C looks attainable, and 1.5°C is still within reach. There is still room for hope.
Aviation is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions.
Free-Photos/Pixabay
Week one in Glasgow has delivered more climate action than the world promised in Paris six years ago. But progress still falls well short of what’s required to limit warming to 1.5°C.
According to recent estimates, only 500 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide can be emitted from 2020 onwards if we are to stay below the 1.5 C threshold. Global emissions have already hit 80 billion tonnes since then.
(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
H. Damon Matthews, Concordia University and Glen Peters, Center for International Climate and Environment Research - Oslo
The clock tracks global emissions and temperature data, and uses the most recent five-year emissions trend to estimate how much time is left until global warming reaches the 1.5 C threshold.
Pacific nations look to New Zealand for climate leadership. It has enshrined carbon neutrality by 2050 and a 1.5°C target in law, but, so far, emissions have continued to rise.
IPCC authors go beyond the headlines to explain how 1.5°C warming is measured – and why there’s still reason to hope, and act, if Earth exceeds that limit.