Here's Why I'm Optimistic About Climate Financing
We’re about to enter the second half of a crucial decade for action. Money hasn’t often flowed to the biggest problems, but I see reasons to be encouraged.
Green shoots.
Photographer: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images
So we’re at the end of another record-breaking year for heat. It became “effectively certain” at the start of December that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record and more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial baseline, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, part of the European Union’s Earth observation program.
The Paris Agreement temperature target, which aims to try and limit warming to 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial levels and “well below” 2C, is in serious jeopardy. Though this year’s breach is likely to be temporary, with global temperatures boosted by El Niño, Zeke Hausfather, researcher at nonprofit group Berkeley Earth, told the Guardian that the 1.5C goal is “deader than a doornail.”