UN: Climate at crisis point

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Sunday that the world’s efforts to stop climate change have been “utterly inadequate” so far and there is a danger global warming could pass the “point of no return.”

Speaking before the start Monday of a two-week international climate conference in Madrid, Guterres said the impact of rising temperatures is already being felt around the world.

He noted the world has the technical means to limit global warming, but “what is lacking is political will.”

“The point of no return is no longer over the horizon,” Guterres said. “It is in sight and hurtling toward us.”

Delegates from almost 200 countries will try to put the finishing touches on the rules governing the 2015

Paris climate accord, including how to create international emissions-trading systems and compensate poor countries for losses they suffer from rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change.

Guterres cited mounting scientific evidence for the impact that man-made emissions of greenhouse gases are already having on the planet, including record temperatures, extreme weather and melting polar ice. But he insisted that his message was “one of hope, not of despair. Our war against nature must stop, and we know that that is possible.”

Countries agreed in Paris four years ago to limit global warming to below 3.6 Fahrenheit by the end of the century.

President Trump plans to withdraw the US from the Paris agreement.