Free exchange | A hot mess

摘要

A QUARTER-CENTURY has passed since the first global climate-change treaty, the un Framework Convention on Climate Change. Humanity's record of following through on its climate promises is dismal. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 15% since 1994. The average global temperature, relative to the norm for 1951-80, has gone up by about 0.5℃ over that period. And in 2018 annual emissions reached their highest level ever. To have a good chance of stopping global temperatures rising more than 1.5℃ relative to the pre-industrial norm, by 2030 annual greenhouse-gas emissions must fall by almost half, relative to levels in 2010, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They almost certainly will not.