Warming world in the balance at knife-edge climate summit

Warming world in the balance at knife-edge climate summit

Billed as a chance for humanity to save itself from climate catastrophe, the United Nations COP26 summit starting Sunday will task world leaders with turning ambitions to restrain global heating into the actions needed to slash greenhouse gas emissions. With just over one degree Celsius warming so far after 150 years of burning fossil fuels, the world is experiencing a rapid-fire onslaught of weather disasters supercharged by climate change. Since the last UN conference in 2019, record-shattering wildfires have scorched across Australia, Western Europe and the United States; North America has sizzled in a once-in-a-thousand-year heatwave; and extreme rainfall has caused massive flooding in Asia, Africa, the US and Europe. Experts warn that only transformative action will help stave off far more devastating climate impacts, not just for humanity but most life on Earth. "We don't have much time," said David King, a former British climate envoy who now heads the Climate Crisis Advisory Group. "What we do over the next five to ten years will determine the future of humanity for the next millennia," he told AFP. But the road to climate salvation is strewn with obstacles. Nations under pressure to revitalise Covid-ravaged economies continue to subsidise fossil fuels,