From canarymedia.com
1. The United States is not currently on track to meet its goal of cutting emissions in half by 2030.
2. Over the past year, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, global temperatures averaged 1.6 degrees Celsius (2.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
Under the landmark 2015 Paris agreement, the world’s leaders pledged to hold Earth’s temperature rise “to well below” 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase” to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, to avert some of the worst effects of global warming. The fact that the planet surpassed 1.5 degrees C for one year does not amount to a permanent shift, but it comes as scientists are warning that it is likely to happen again — within a few years.
A separate study published by a group of 57 scientists on Wednesday found that human activities were responsible for 92 percent of the warming observed in 2023, the planet’s hottest calendar year on record. It said the rate of warming in the past decade is “unprecedented in the instrumental record.”
3. Resource constraints. There may not be enough resources to fight climate change, and it can be difficult to allocate them efficiently. For example, funding for climate action, technology development, and climate adaptation in vulnerable regions may be insufficient.
4. Decarbonizing steel, cement and chemicals are still a challenge. They’re also among the largest global sources of carbon emissions — manufacturing them releases more CO2 into the atmosphere each year than all of the emissions generated by the United States.
These materials are so emissions-intensive not just because of how they’re made, but also because of how much of them the world uses