Dirk S. Schmeller, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
Rather than just a small change here or there, taking real action on climate change and biodiversity requires a fundamental, system-wide reorganisation.
Demonstrators at the COP24 summit in Katowice, Poland.
Andrzej Grygiel / EPA
World elites should pay more attention to young, marginalised or indigenous voices.
Bamboo structures on the Brahmaputra river in Majuli, northeastern India, intended to help prevent land erosion in a region experiencing erratic weather patterns and bursts of intense rainfall.
AP Photo/Anupam Nath
Climate change is a serious threat now for poor people in developing countries, but the COP24 conference in Poland offered them little hope of near-term emissions cuts or economic aid.
Freight ships are tied to many countries.
Reuters/Phil Noble
Carbon emissions from maritime freight are everyone’s problem because of climate change.
Heads of delegations react at the end of the final session of the COP24 summit on climate change in Katowice, Poland, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018.
AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski
An economist breaks down results on two key issues at the COP24 climate change meeting: getting all nations to use the same measuring and reporting rules, and linking policies across borders.
Delegates at the closing ceremony of the Katowice climate talks.
Marek Zimny/AAP Image
Three years after the Paris Agreement, negotiators have finally agreed (most of) the rules for its implementation. But there is still no way to compel countries to deepen their climate ambitions.
For decades, economists have pondered the ‘social cost of carbon’ - the price worth paying to avoid the future costs of greenhouse emissions. But a new analysis suggests this quest is impossibly complex.
Ford’s F-150 trucks are more popular when gas costs less.
AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
The UN climate talks are being held in a nation dominated by cheap coal.
An NGO representative stands in front of a replica of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris climate change conference in December 2015.
(Michel Euler/AP Photo)
Thirty percent of global emissions will be generated from democracies governed by populist nationalist leaders who have very different playbooks than more traditional politicians.
Work cut out for them: Climate negotiators need to ensure the Paris Agreement can still hold.
United Nations Climate Change
The Paris Agreement was a breakthrough in global climate talks, but nations now face major hurdles to meeting long-term emissions goals – and maintaining global support for the deal.
We may only have 12 years to stop climate change and the landmark Paris Agreement of 2015 seems more in doubt than ever. What can we hope to come out of COP24?
A necessary sea change.
Larina Marina/Shutterstock
While the world gathers to negotiate on climate change, governments must recognise the public desire for action on plastic pollution and work together to solve it.
Private finance crashed the economy and is too consumed by the profit motive to be a reliable ally against climate change. We should not allow COP24 to be their board meeting.