Carbon emissions likely to reach an all-time high this year: report
World leaders have come and gone. Now lower level ministers at COP27 in Egypt must wrestle with the thorniest issues dividing rich and poor nations on the climate crisis in order to craft an agreement.
Why it matters: The decisions made in Sharm el-Sheikh could help determine whether the Paris warming limit of 1.5°C permanently fades into the distance, or if nations commit to sweeping actions to keep it alive.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate diplomacy: COP 27
The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) produced a groundbreaking agreement to create a “loss and damage” fund to help developing nations cope with the impact of climate change.
But the conference, held from Nov. 6 to Nov. 20, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, fell short of a hoped-for agreement to speed reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.