Climate panel sees little hope of action

Preventing an extra single degree of heat could make a life-or-death difference in the next few decades for multitudes of people and ecosystems on this fast-warming planet, an international panel of scientists reported Sunday. But they provide little hope the world will rise to the challenge.

The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its gloomy report at a meeting in Incheon, South Korea.

In the 728-page document, the U.N. organization detailed how Earth’s weather, health and ecosystems would be in better shape if the world’s leaders could somehow limit future human-caused warming to just 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit from now on, instead of the globally agreed-upon goal of 1.8 degrees F. Among other things: Half as many people would suffer from lack of water; there would be fewer deaths and illnesses from heat, smog and infectious diseases; and there would be substantially fewer heat waves, downpours and droughts. Limiting warming to 0.9 degrees from now means the world can keep “a semblance” of the ecosystems we have, according to the report.

But meeting the more ambitious goal of slightly less warming would require immediate, draconian cuts in emissions of heat-trapping gases and dramatic changes in the energy field. While the U.N. panel says technically that’s possible, it saw little chance of the needed adjustments happening.