CLIMATE CHANGE

Axos - Official word will arrive later this week that the planet again recorded the hottest calendar year in recorded history....This year's record stands out from the pack in that it wasn't expected. That's prompted climate scientists to launch multiple studies investigating what led to the record heat...

 Zeke Hausfather, climate lead at Stripe, said 2024's record-breaking temperatures raise the question of "whether the era of rapid global warming that started in the 1970s is now speeding up."

• Some prominent climate researchers think the answer is yes....
• "While a single year above 1.5°C does not mean that the world has passed that target," he told Axios via email, "it is certainly a sign that we are getting worryingly close.

The Guadian - The international effort to avert climate catastrophe has become mired by misinformation and bad faith actors, and must be fundamentally reformed, according to a leading UN climate expert.Elisa Morgera, the UN special rapporteur on climate change, said the annual UN climate summits and the consensus-based, state-driven process is dominated by powerful forces pushing false narratives and by tech fixes that divert attention from real, equitable solutions for the countries least responsible and most affected.

“The current climate regime was built in a way, maybe unconsciously, that locked in an ineffective approach that is blind to the disproportionate harms of climate change – and increasingly climate solutions – and the disproportionate benefits that the current situation is accruing to very few states and very few individuals,” said Morgera, in an exclusive interview with the Guardian.

“We can observe that some states are not acting in good faith in very clear ways, which is the basis of any international regime. There is widespread disregard for the rule of international law, and also a very clear pushback on the science, and shrinking of civil spaces at all levels. Basically, the truth is out of the conversation. That is the problem – there is no space at Cop for the truth,” said Morgera. “Fundamental reform is possible, if there is a willingness by the states and the secretariat, but it’s hard to see that at the moment.”