As we noted last week, The Economist has a new fortnightly summary of climate change issues. Its first edition focused on the annual UN climate talks now being in Madrid.
These are a prelude to next year’s COP26 in Glasgow when the nearly 200 countries that signed up to the Paris agreement in 2015 are expected to commit to deeper cuts to their greenhouse-gas emissions. The Economist says that preparing for this is one item on the agenda in Madrid. The other is ironing out the final details of the Paris agreement itself. The Economit has a World Ahead podcast on these issues.
The Paris agreement is an attempt to tackle global heating, and to establish long-term goals to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to net zero. Modelling shows that to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, emissions must cease or be offset by mid-century or soon after, but a report out last week suggests that the pledges governments have made since 2015 are likely to be missed.