Renewed calls for climate action after bleak reports
According to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, each of the past 12 months has recorded its highest temperature ever.
Data from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, meanwhile, is equally alarming: There's an 80% chance one of the next five years will be 1.5°C higher than pre-industrial times (the chance when the Paris Agreement was adopted almost a decade ago was near-zero).
In an address in New York marking World Environment Day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a swift response. Citing both reports, he stated, “the truth is the battle for 1.5°C will be won or lost in the 2020s under the watch of leaders today,” adding, “it all depends on the decisions those leaders take, or fail to take, especially in the next 18 months. It's climate crunch time.”
However, for many communities around the globe it’s already too late, as the effects of the climate crisis – from droughts to floods, from deadly storms to sea-level rise – ruin lives and livelihoods around the globe.
To find out more, check out Changing climate, changing lives, or click on the most recent stories from the series below:
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