Climate Changed
Climate Change Deniers Are Blocking Progress, UN Report Suggests for First Time
- Paris pledges must be three times more ambitious to hit goal
- People doubt global warming because they don’t like solutions
This article is for subscribers only.
The United Nations’ annual assessment of global progress on climate change delivers familiar bad news this year -- the problem is getting worse, not better -- with a new twist: For the first time, political ideology is singled out for obstructing changes that would slow global warming.
The annual calculation of the “emissions gap,” the chasm between global pollution and international efforts to limit it, lays new blame with behaviors and cultures that lead some nations, including the U.S., to fall short on pollution goals. “There is a tendency for citizens to question problems if policy solutions challenge their world views,” the authors write.