‘Fight for humanity’: Avoiding a climate catastrophe means acting now

Record heat waves, deadly flooding and extreme weather reflect an ever-warming planet poised to soon breach safe temperature limits, according to a UN report released on Tuesday, but doubling down on climate action now could avoid a climate catastrophe.Key pointsRapid, collective and global action is vital to cap the temperature rise at 1.5°CClimate action can reverse current trend by slashing methane pollution, protecting land, forest and oceans and accelerating the phaseout of fossil fuelsEvery fraction of a degree will cost lives, destroy livelihoods, deepen inequality and push ecosystems closer to irreversible damageThe scorching heat in the northern hemisphere in recent months, raging wildfires and deadly floods are a warning of what lies ahead, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said.He recalled that the historic 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change saw world leaders pledge to keep temperature rise to the 1.5°C limit above pre-industrial levels, which scientists say is critical to avoiding the worst climate devastation.Indeed, the world is failing to keep that promise, according to the new report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)“The fight for 1.5 degrees is the f...