Last year’s Copenhagen climate summit was a bit of a bust, so much is riding on next week’s global huddle in Mexico in terms of, you know, the future of our planet and other minor considerations. But a new study by UNEP, or the United Nations Environment Program, doesn’t offer much hope that even the combined force of those countries ready and willing to tackle climate change can stage a successful intervention in time to ward off disaster. Meanwhile, delegates will have a nice, warm time in Cancun. –KA

The Independent:

The world is now firmly on the path for dangerous climate change in the coming century, a major new assessment reveals today on the eve of the forthcoming UN climate conference which opens next week in Mexico.

All the pledges of the nations which have agreed to cut or limit their emissions of greenhouse gases, when added together, still leave the world far short of what is needed to halt the coming rise in global average temperatures to 2C, generally regarded as the danger threshold, according to the study from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

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