? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

To properly head off the worsening impacts of climate change, we need to act Five Times Faster . That’s the takeaway from Simon Sharpe, a former civil servant in the UK government’s climate and energy departments, who offers what he believes to be a realistic roadmap to accelerate global efforts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Buoyed by the rising adoption of renewable energy, electric vehicles, and energy efficiency, global emissions are being cut by around 1.5% per year — but that falls far below the 8% annual emission reduction rate that we need to hit to limit global warming by 1.5°C per year.

Who’s to blame? Pretty much everyone. Science, diplomacy, and economics have all fallen short in solving the climate crisis, Sharpe argues, with a confluence of issues coming together to create a situation that now needs a radical turnaround. Sharpe argues that climate scientists fail to fully convey to the world the severity of the risks we’re facing, leading politicians to rely on biased and unclear reports — whether intentionally or simply because they don’t have the necessary information to drive change. Economists are also part of the equation, he says, positing that they have produced models that completely fail to account for the economic repercussions of climate change.

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