??? Climate will warm by 3.1 C without urgent action

??? Climate will warm by 3.1 C without urgent action

This is an excerpt from the Reuters Sustainable Switch Climate Focus newsletter that goes into the heart of how companies and governments are grappling with climate change, diversity, and human rights. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox three times a week, subscribe here.

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?? Scientists had a startling message this week – current climate policies will result in global warming of more than 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.

?? This is more than twice the rise agreed by governments who signed up to the Paris Agreement in 2015.

Tourists walk during a new heatwave as temperatures are expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius in some cities, excluding Venice, Italy August 10, 2024. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri
Tourists walk during a new heatwave as temperatures are expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius in some cities, excluding Venice, Italy August 10, 2024. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri

?? The figure came in the U.N.’s annual Emissions Gap report , which takes stock of countries' promises to tackle climate change compared with what is needed. Governments needed to take much greater action on slashing planet-warming emissions,? it said.

"We're teetering on a planetary tight rope," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a speech. "Either leaders bridge the emissions gap, or we plunge headlong into climate disaster."

People riding horses pass through flooded streets, after Storm Nadine made landfall, in Belize City, Belize, October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Jose A.
People riding horses pass through flooded streets, after?Storm?Nadine made landfall, in Belize City, Belize, October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Jose A.?

? Elsewhere, a letter written by more than 40 climate scientists called on governments to slash global greenhouse-gas emissions or risk more extreme weather events.

?? In it, the scientists urged Nordic ministers to prevent global warming from causing a major change in an Atlantic Ocean current which could trigger abrupt shifts in weather patterns and damage ecosystems, they added.

"Such an ocean circulation change would have devastating and irreversible impacts especially for Nordic countries, but also for other parts of the world," the scientists said in their letter to the Nordic Council of Ministers, which comprises five countries, including Denmark and Sweden, and three autonomous territories.

People look out to the Atlantic ocean from Slea Had in Ventry, Ireland December 27, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo
People look out to the?Atlantic?ocean?from Slea Had in Ventry, Ireland December 27, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

?? This week, Netherlands government climate policy adviser PBL found that the country will miss its main 2030 climate goal unless it takes more action to reduce emissions.

?? Current policies are set to reduce CO2 emissions by only 44-52% relative to 1990 levels, it said, missing the 55% target.

??? PBL noted that meeting the goals had become harder after the Netherlands' new right-wing government scrapped plans for the introduction of new road taxes and announced the end of subsidies for solar panels and delays in the development of offshore wind farms.

People walk near the Baku Olympic Stadium, the venue of the COP29 United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Baku, Azerbaijan October 18, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov/File Photo
People walk near the?Baku?Olympic Stadium, the venue of the COP29 United Nations Climate Change Conference, in?Baku, Azerbaijan October 18, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov/File Photo

?? Scientists from around the world are releasing reports and calling on more governmental action to address climate change amid the 16th biodiversity Conference of the Parties in Cali, Colombia and in anticipation of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

?? As a reminder, Sustainable Switch will be sent daily during COP29 from Nov 11 – 22.

?? What to Watch

A drone view shows Lal and Willie Pierce's 200-year-old ancestral family home which is at risk of being claimed by the sea due to coastal erosion hastened by climate change, in Ballyhealy, Ireland October 14, 2024. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
Lal and Willie Pierce's 200-year-old ancestral family home which is at risk due to coastal erosion hastened by climate change, in Ballyhealy, Ireland October 14, 2024. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

?? An elderly Irish couple fear they are running out of time to save their family home as accelerating coastal erosion brings the sea ever closer to their front door. Click here to learn more.

?? Climate Commentary?

  • Reuters Breakingviews’ Anthony Currie writes about how mining giant BHP’s tactics during its London lawsuit play a role in victims remaining uncompensated for too long and leave a bad taste over a catastrophic dam failure in 2015.
  • Ross Kerber , U.S. sustainable business correspondent for Reuters, writes about New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s plan to end certain pension funds' future private market investments in fossil fuel infrastructure over climate concerns .
  • Helle Bank Jorgensen, CEO of Competent Boards, shares the three steps to tackling the green skills gap in the boardroom for the Ethical Corp Magazine. Click here to learn more.

?? ESG Spotlight

??Today’s spotlight follows a Jaguar’s quest for survival after devastating wildfires in Brazil.

?? They call him Bold and he is Brazil's most famous jaguar, seen on social media diving into rivers to capture a caiman and wrestle his prey ashore.

A female jaguar named Patricia, by NGO Jaguar ID, with her cub Makala are seen at Encontro das Aguas State Park, in the Pantanal, the largest wetland in the world, in Pocone, Mato Grosso, Brazil, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes
A female jaguar named Patricia, by NGO Jaguar ID, with her cub Makala are seen at Encontro das Aguas State Park, in the Pantanal, the largest wetland in the world, in Pocone, Mato Grosso, Brazil, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes

?? Bold and his fellow jaguars are surviving the worst fires to engulf the world's largest tropical wetlands in central-western Brazil, the Pantanal. Unlike other animals trapped and burnt to death , jaguars know how to seek refuge on the banks of rivers where food is available in the caimans and capybaras they hunt.

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Chris Williams

Founder and Exec Chairman - ISB Global (Waste & Recycling Software, SAP, OutSystems,AWS)

4 周

3.1 Degree rise is very bad news.

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