Global warming
Arctic endured one of its hottest years in 2020 - study
The sea ice floating in the Arctic Ocean melts in summer and freezes again in winter. The problem is each year it is melting a bit more in the warm weather and...
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - the main driver of climate change - hit record highs last year and continued climbing in 2020 despite measures to halt the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using a stripped-down climate model, Randers and colleague Ulrich Goluke projected changes out to the year 2500 under two scenarios: the instant cessation of emissions, and the gradual reduction of planet warming gases to zero by 2100.
Such outcomes - closely linked to poverty, especially in the tropics - will likely increase with global warming, especially during more frequent and intense heatwaves, they reported in BMJ, a medical journal.
The Earthshot Prize will present five £1 million awards each year for the next 10 years, to 'incentivise change and help to repair our planet over the next ten years,' said his office in London.
Man-made climate change has increased surface temperatures across the planet, leading to atmospheric instability and amplifying extreme weather events, such as storms.
The line-up of speakers also includes European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, teenage climate activist Xiye Bastida, actor Chris Hemsworth, and former US vice president Al Gore.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said that while the coronavirus pandemic was devastating, it was not the only problem facing the world. He said that climate change was a huge worry.
The World Meteorological Organization said on Monday it would start the process to verify the reading of 54.4 degrees Celsius, which it said "would be the hottest global temperature officially recorded since 1931".
The climate activist cited a UN study published in November that suggested planned investments to boost fossil fuel production are likely to push temperature goals enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement out of reach.
Authors of the research said the natural warming trend was likely boosted by manmade greenhouse gas emissions and could be masking the heating effect of carbon pollution over the South Pole.
Under the landmark 2015 accord, countries pledged to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels in order to limit global temperature rises to 'well below' two degrees Celsius.
The study showed the world could lose most of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which rests on the seabed and is fringed by floating ice, in a warmer world.
A chart showing January global air temperature anomalies, compared to the 1981-2010 average.
Johnson was to make the announcement at an event launching the 2019 United Nations Climate Change conference, COP26, which will be held in Glasgow in November.
The US president branded those warning of out-of-control global warming and other environmental disasters "the heirs of yesterday's foolish fortune tellers".
Thunberg is due to address the summit in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos next week with a call on governments and financial institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels.
"We have been putting things off year after year, we have been raising targets and saying 'Oh well, if we do it within the next 20 years," he told the BBC.
It showed that the average global temperature in 2019 was 1.1 degree Celsius (34 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, creeping towards a globally agreed limit after which major changes to life on Earth are expected.