“A world that goes over 2 degrees would also have human costs - in addition to the economic costs - that just are beyond anything that we would feel is responsible for us as human beings. Because the loss of land, the loss of livelihood, the loss of homes, and the loss of life, would be unmeasurable.”
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, at her talk for the Grantham Annual Lecture on April 11 2016.
Time is running short for countries to decide the practical details of how the Paris Agreement will be brought to life, known as the Paris “rulebook”.
The world risks crossing the point of no return on climate change, with disastrous consequences for people across the planet and the natural systems that sustain them, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Monday, calling for more leadership and greater ambition for climate action, to reverse course.
China’s vision of a global energy system overemphasises the benefits of connectivity. Planners and investors also have to consider the potential impacts on biodiversity and local community livelihoods from different power generation methods and find ways to prevent them.
A new report analyses how the transition to a low-carbon economy – and the minerals and metals required to make that shift – could affect fragility, conflict, and violence dynamics in mineral-rich states.