A ‘Liveable Future’ Depends on Slashing Emissions This Decade, Major Climate Report Finds

The world needs to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half this decade, a landmark new United Nations report urges. To reach that goal, the globe needs to make a speedy shift to clean energy, reduce energy use, and deploy technologies that can trap some of our planet-heating carbon dioxide pollution, the report’s authors say. From a report: “We are at a crossroads. The decisions we make now can secure a liveable future,” Hoesung Lee, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel Panel on Climate Change, said in a press release. “We have the tools and know-how required to limit warming.”

Hundreds of leading climate scientists participated in the report, which outlines what’s needed to avoid all-out climate catastrophe. It boils down to one key call to action: “rapid and deep” reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors. It builds on previous research that finds that more than 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming would be devastating for people and wildlife around the world. We are alarmingly close to breaching that threshold. We could surpass it before 2030, today’s new report says. But we could rewrite that grim future if big changes are made to cut emissions in half this decade. The longer-term goal is to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century in order to keep global average temperatures stable.