Climate-change battle can still be won if Paris treaty is ratcheted up

THE United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on Monday a hard-hitting report that asserts that there may be only a dozen years to prevent the worst impacts of so-called "runaway" global warming. In a clarion call to the international community, the IPCC made clear that only urgent, unprecedented political and economic action can avoid worsening risks of future drought, extreme heat and floods across the globe.

In these circumstances, pessimism may yet grow about the future of global efforts to combat climate change. Yet, while the scale of the challenge is huge (and growing), actions can still be taken collectively by governments, businesses and individuals - actions that are affordable and feasible to potentially turn this situation around under the flexible 2015 Paris treaty, which has scope to be ratcheted up.

The challenge, according to the IPCC, is keeping temperature rises to no more than the 1.5 deg C mark above pre-industrial levels, instead of the 2 deg C target set by the Paris agreement. Yet, the IPCC warns that there is now a very high risk that, under current emissions trajectories and current national pledges, global warming will exceed that amount, perhaps significantly so.