Meanwhile, this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan (COP29) inspired less optimism than past summits. That’s partly because it came just after Donald Trump’s reelection as U.S. president, which dashed hopes that the next U.S. administration would support climate action at home or abroad. But the conference was also widely criticized by activists, scientists, and policymakers for reasons ranging from its host (a petrostate whose president called oil and gas a “gift of god”) to the attendance of at least 1,700 fossil fuel lobbyists.
This year is set to be the first on record in which global average temperatures rise to more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. It’s a harrowing sign for the fate of the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees over a long-term period—a target that, depending on whom you ask, is either already dead or in grave danger.
This year is set to be the first on record in which global average temperatures rise to more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. It’s a harrowing sign for the fate of the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees over a long-term period—a target th
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