Five years after the world signed the landmark Paris Agreement to avoid dangerous global warming, political momentum is building. But the lack of near-term detail means the planet is still on track for climate catastrophe.
The six-hour Climate Ambition Summit on Saturday threw the problem into sharp relief: Activists were eager for China to put some meat on the bones of its bold 2060 carbon neutrality pledge. They were disappointed. One country after another failed to raise the bar, as leaders offered only incremental steps.
"As encouraging as all this ambition is, it is not enough,” said Alok Sharma, U.K. Business Secretary who is also president of the next round of global climate talks in Glasgow next year, known as COP26.