Climate ambition

Many of the net zero commitments are disappointing

The approaching meeting of the United Nations’ Conference of Parties on Climate Change, which will be its 26th and so is generally abbreviated COP26, has been prefaced with considerable global pressure on India to take on greater climate ambition. Since the Paris Accords were signed in 2015, it has become clear that even if all the carbon emission commitments in the Accord are met, the goal of keeping the world’s average temperature from rising less than 1.5 degrees Celsius — or even 2 degrees — would likely still be out of reach. These are the bars set by scientists in