The world has about 30 years left before temperatures rise to risky levels if it continues to burn fossil fuels at the present rate, scientists warned in a landmark climate report on Friday.
Greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity such as burning fuels like coal and gas were responsible for the majority of the “unequivocal” global warming that occurred over the past 60 years, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found.
Now they are on track to cause substantial shifts in global sea levels, ice cover and other parts of the climate system, which has already undergone changes that the panel said were “unprecedented” for thousands of years.