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July 16, 2014

U.N. Report Details Concrete Steps to Counter Global Warming 
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Global experts have submitted a report to the United Nations on how the
world's top economies can help avoid climate disaster. The study for
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon details specific steps that countries can
take to help keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius, the target level for
staving off devastating global warming. The Pathways to Deep
Decarbonization Project is being billed as the most comprehensive of its
kind to outline practical measures to counter climate change. Project
member Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute,
said that if countries do not adapt, the world is on pace for a
temperature hike of 4 degrees or higher.

Jeffrey Sachs: "What's concerning about this report is that we are way
off track, and to get on track will require major cooperative efforts
that are right now not in place. Two degrees Centigrade limit is not
easily achieved. We're on a trajectory of some 4 degrees Centigrade or
more, depending on exactly the assumptions that one makes. And all of
the evidence is that the business-as-usual path would be an absolutely
reckless and unforgivable gamble with this planet."

The United Nations will hold a climate change summit in New York in
September as part of negotiations for a global agreement by the end of
next year.

 

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