Climate change: Why a new outlook is needed

THE longest ever UN climate summit on record finished in Madrid on Sunday after going into "overtime" on Friday. While a compromise deal was agreed, talks nearly collapsed over the weekend, underlining that a new way of tackling global warming is now needed.

The compromise deal will see all countries putting new climate pledges on the table by the time of the next summit in November in Scotland. However, there were big divisions on display with key countries including Australia, the United States, Canada, Russia, India, China and Brazil, criticised by some, including the Alliance of Small Island States which represents some 44 nations, for thwarting the level of ambition needed to realise the Paris Treaty's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Research published during the summit shows that global carbon emissions have risen by 4 per cent since Paris in 2015. And that reductions of more than 7 per cent a year are now needed in the 2020s to have any chance of hitting the 1.5 deg C limit, the uppermost limit scientists say is necessary to prevent dangerous or so-called "runaway" climate change.