The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change should terrify policymakers and ordinary people around the world. The IPCC warns that some disastrous climate outcomes are now likely to occur not in the distant future, but within the next 15 years, or even the next decade.
But instead of waking up to the threat and responding quickly, policymakers remain focused on Russia's horrific war against Ukraine and its immediate consequences. While this may be understandable, the Ukraine crisis has also exposed the excessively short-term policy orientation of Western governments. Many have quickly reneged on even the relatively meagre and obviously inadequate climate pledges they made only a few months ago at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.
