U.N. report: The world is running out of ways to reach its climate goals and avert catastrophic environmental changes

"The world is on track to blaze past a crucial climate target within eight years, some of the planet’s top researchers, economists and social scientists said in a sober assessment Monday," Sarah Kaplan and Brady Dennis report for The Washington Post. "Whether humanity can change course after decades of inaction is largely a question of collective resolve, according to the latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Governments, businesses and individuals must summon the willpower to transform economies, embrace new habits and leave behind the age of fossil fuels — or face the catastrophic consequences of unchecked climate change."

"Governments agreed in the 2015 Paris accord to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) this century, ideally no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit)," The Associated Press reports. "Yet temperatures have already increased by over 1.1 C (2 F) since pre-industrial times, resulting in measurable increases in disasters such flash floods, prolonged droughts, more intense hurricanes and longer-burning wildfires, putting human lives in danger and costing governments hundreds of billions of dollars to confront."

Unless wealthy nations (which produce most pollution) take the threat seriously and cut greenhouse gas emissions, the report's authors said they have "high confidence" that the world's average temperature will be increase another 2 to 4 degrees by the end of the century, "a level experts say is sure to cause severe impacts for much of the world's population," Jordans and Borenstein report. Though it's still possible for nations to curb their pollution in time to meet the goal (and could be economically viable), the authors say it's only possible through immediate, widespread action. 

"Monday’s report represents the IPCC’s first analysis of humanity’s remaining paths for climate action since the landmark Paris Agreement, in which world leaders committed to prevent dangerous warming," Kaplan and Dennis report. "The several thousand page document details how coordinated efforts to scale up renewable energy sources, overhaul transportation systems, restructure cities, improve agriculture and pull carbon from the air could put the planet on a more sustainable path while improving living standards around the globe."