January 24, 2020–Oceans, biodiversity, deforestation: what’s on the climate agenda for 2020? (Guardian)

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World leaders and business chiefs meeting in Davos this week will be confronted for the first time with an agenda on which the climate and ecological crises take top billing. Financial and economic concerns have been shunted down the list of priorities in favour of five environmental issues: climate breakdown and extreme weather; failure to mitigate or adapt to climate change; human-made pollution; biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse; and natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. Green campaigners and social and human rights activists have been raising concerns on all of these for more than two decades, but it seems that finally the world’s powers are paying attention. In some cases it may be too late to act to avoid the consequences of the delay in taking action.

Since 2015 when the landmark Paris agreement was signed, greenhouse gas emissions have risen a further 4% and although there are signs the rate of increase may be slowing, that is nowhere near enough. Oceans are at the hottest ever recorded. Last year, ecological scientists said 1 million species were on the brink of extinction. The biomass of wild animals on the planet has fallen by more than 80%, about half of the area of key natural ecosystems has been lost, and insect populations have crashed, according to the report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in 2018 that by 2030 the world must be on track or exceeding 1.5C of global heating above pre-industrial levels would be all but inevitable. Warming has already topped 1C and 2019 was the second hottest year on record. To view the full article visit the Guardian.