BLOOMBERG • January 16, 2024
In 2015, in what seemed at the time like a triumph for humanity, the world’s leaders set a stretch goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages. Not even nine years later, you could be forgiven for thinking they’ve failed. The good news is that they haven’t failed just yet. The bad news is that they’re rapidly running out of time. We must act with far more urgency. The world has less than a decade of emissions left in its “carbon budget” before the chance of holding at 1.5C is lost forever. Not one country is doing enough to avoid this fate, according to the nonprofit-backed Climate Action Tracker. Your typical corporate leader wouldn’t stand for such lackadaisical efforts to meet stretch goals, and neither should we. ~ Mark Gongloff