The Senate voted 69-27 on Wednesday to approve a treaty that would limit highly potent greenhouse gases, a step experts say could buy humanity valuable time to stave off the worst repercussions of climate change.
Approval of the treaty, the Kigali Amendment, came as world leaders gathered at U.N. headquarters in New York, where U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned this week that rising greenhouse gas emissions placed the world on a path to “global suicide.”
He and other world leaders, including President Joe Biden, noted that the gathering took place as much of Pakistan remained flooded — experts link more frequent and catastrophic extreme weather events to a warming climate — and during a year that has broken temperature records.
