The World Is Headed for 3 Degrees of Warming, U.N. Report Warns—But a Green Pandemic Recovery Could Offer Hope

Dense U.N. reports may not make onto anyone’s must read list for the holidays, so think of the United Nations Environment Program’s 2020 Emissions Gap survey as a warning letter from Santa, on behalf of the planet. The report, released today, is published at the end of every year and measures national commitments to reduce emissions against what science says is needed to limit global warming to an increase of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the goal set out by the 2015 Paris Agreement. This year, we are still firmly on the naughty list, as we have been for the past five years. But there is an opportunity to turn that looming lump of coal in our future—a global climate catastrophe—into a...