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The world is warming fast,and climate change is already hurting,the UN’s latest report says.

The report also shows that the world has already warmed by 1.1 degrees,and is likely to pass through the Paris Agreement’s most ambitious goal of withholding warming to 1.5 degrees in the coming decade.

None of this is equivocal. This report is the work of thousands of scientists over half a decade of study and analysis. Its wording was painstakingly negotiated by representatives of nearly all the world’s governments before its approval and publication.

It is the most thorough assessment of climate science the world will see during the last decade in which we still have time to act to arrest the worst impacts of climate change.

And this is another key point made by the report and its authors – there is still time to act.

“We are up the proverbial creek,” said the Australian climate scientist Professor Frank Jotzo during a briefing on Monday,“but we have a paddle”.

The report makes clear that both the technology and policy instruments for rapid and affordable emission reductions have already been proven.

“The report assesses that billions of tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year are being avoided or not being emitted because of the direct effect of policies and laws and other measures to constrain emissions and reduce emissions,” explains Jotzo.

“So it’s no longer hypothetical in terms of reducing emissions,it’s actually happening. Eighteen countries can be identified as having substantially and consistently reducing emissions over time,and the aggregate effect globally of emissions policies is a very significant one.”

‘In short our world needs climate action on all fronts – everything,everywhere,all at once.’
United Nations secretary general António Guterres

The three-step process needed to put the world on track to meeting targets is made clear in the report.

We need immediate and rapid cuts to fossil fuel use,quickly followed by their abolition.

Then we need to tackle emissions from those industries which are at present harder to render clean like aviation and shipping,steel and concrete manufacturing.

Finally,we need to protect and expand our natural carbon sinks,such as forests,and then deploy carbon capture and storage technology at scale to harvest the warming agent from the atmosphere.

Though the steps are sequential,work on all – and funding for them – must begin at once and continue concurrently.

“In short,” said United Nations chief António Guterres on the report’s publication,“our world needs climate action on all fronts – everything,everywhere,all at once.”

So far this is not happening. According to some of those party to the pre-publication negotiations,while the science is no longer debated by national representatives at IPCC meetings,tensions over the cost of climate mitigation and adaptation are increasing.

And in the face of an energy crisis governments are resisting taking the steps needed to phase out fossil fuels,which include rapidly ending subsidies and ceasing approval and funding of new oil and gas projects.

These steps are neither easy nor cheap,but they are necessary,and now absolutely clear.

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