Keeping long-term global warming to two degrees Celsius \u2013 the backup target of the Paris climate agreement \u2013 is now \u201cimpossible\u201d, according to a brand new analysis published by leading scientists. The work, led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, appears in the journal\u00a0Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development<\/i>\u00a0and concludes that the Earth's climate is more sensitive to increasing greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought.<\/p>\n
Hansen and colleagues argued that the crisis was compounded by a recent decline in sun-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which was moderating some of the warming.<\/p>\n
The ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN climate panel, which gives the planet a 50 percent chance of keeping warming below 2\u00b0C by 2100, \u201cis an unlikely scenario,\u201d Hansen said at a briefing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis scenario is now impossible,\u201d said Hansen, a former top NASA climate scientist who famously told the U.S. Congress in 1988 that global warming was underway.<\/p>\n