Nations open to warming under 2C: UN

Carbon-cutting pledges from 146 nations for a universal climate rescue pact leave the “door open” to capping global warming below the danger threshold, the UN said Friday, a month ahead of crunch talks in Paris.

Even if the 10-to-15 year plans are fulfilled, humanity will have used up three-quarters of its carbon “budget” by 2030 and must slash greenhouse gas output more to avoid devastating climate impa-cts, UN’s climate change secretariat warned.

“An unprecedented world-wide effort is under way to combat climate change, building confidence that nations can cost-effectively meet their stated objective of keeping a global temperature rise to under 2 C,” it said in an assessment of the country pledges.

“The national contributions are a game changer, and distance us from the worst,” said French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who will host the year-end climate talks.

At the same time, “much greater emissions reductions efforts... Will be required” to meet the 2°C target endorsed by the UN 195-nation climate body”, it said. The longer we wait, the harder and more expensive it will become to cut back the fossil fuel emissions that drive climate change.

The secretariat’s 66-page review comes exactly one month before the November 30 to December 11 in the French capital tasked with finalising a historic global pact.

The pledges place the world on track for warming of some 2.7 C by 2100 — “by no means enough, but a lot lower than the estimated four, five or more degrees of warming” that would have otherwise take place, said the UN climate chief.

Top Buddhist figures, including the Dalai Lama, have called on world leaders to axe fossil fuels and tackle global warming at climate talks.

Fifteen Buddhist leaders from around the world signed the statement, saying that “our survival and that of other species is at stake”. “Humanity must act on the root causes of this environmental crisis, which is driven by our use of fossil fuels,” it said on Thursday.