Doomsday climate warning of 3.5C temperature rise could be AVOIDED thanks to US and China
HUMANITY is "within striking distance" of climate targets that would save our planet from a doomsday global warming scenario.
That's according to an analysis from the Climate Action Tracker group, which looked at new climate pledges from China and other nations.
They also took into account carbon plans put forward by US President-elect Joe Biden, BBC News .
Taken together, the new pledges would mean the average global temperature rise could be kept to 2.1C (3.8F) by the end of the century.
Previous estimates had predicted up to 3C of heating by this point, with catastrophic impacts on our planet.
"When you add all that up, along with what a whole bunch of other countries are doing, then you move the temperature dial from around 2.7C to really quite close to two degrees."
He added: "It's still a fair way off from the Paris Agreement target, but it is a really major development."
Researchers warned that while their results represent hope for the future, there's still a lot of work to do before humanity can rest easy.
In particular, while nations' long term climate targets are positive, many still fall wide of the mark when it comes to their short term targets.
"Countries have not yet adjusted their short-term actions to be on a pathway towards the long-term target," said Niklas Höhne, from the NewClimate Institute, who also works on the Climate Action Tracker.
"Long-term targets are easier, they are far away. But short-term actions are happening right now and they affect citizens, they affect voters. And that's why this is much more difficult," he told BBC News.
In other news, a tectonic plate under the Indian Ocean is slowly breaking in two, according to research.
Climate change could render a fifth of the planet as hot as the Sahara Desert by 2070, according to a new study.
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