SINGAPORE — What will happen if global production and consumption remain largely unconstrained by controls to minimize the impact on the Earth's complex climate system?
Prospects for concluding an effective international accord in Mexico in less than two months time remain clouded. Modest progress at the latest round of U.N. climate talks that ended in Tianjin on Oct. 9 was overshadowed by continuing deadlock between China and United States, the world's two biggest greenhouse gas polluters.
Yet policymakers running economies and corporate executives want greater clarity from scientists about the future implications of the rise in temperature near the surface of the land and sea.