'No Single Nation Is Doing Enough' To Stop Global Warming, Says Heather Goldstone

United Nations Climate Action Summit — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, far left, and young environmental activists look on as Greta Thunberg, of Sweden, far right, addresses the Climate Action Summit in the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Monday, Sept. 23, 2019.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

September 23, 2019

Updated August 07, 2023

Numerous climate meetings are taking place in New York City this week, including the UN Climate Action Summit. WGBH's science correspondent Heather Goldstone called in to Boston Public Radio to give updates from Climate Week New York City on Monday.

"Climate Week New York City is run by a group with a real focus on civil society, and in particular with businesses and corporations, and how the private sector can really affect the climate situation," she said.

Last October, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report detailing the crises that would occur if global warming rises over an additional 1.5 degrees Celsius. The report warns that there are only around a dozen years remaining before global warming exceeds the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit, based on the world's current track.

"Unfortunately, as former Secretary of State John Kerry said this morning, no single nation on earth is doing enough to keep us in that zone right now," Goldstone said. "We really need to be doing more, and more quickly, if we're going to stay within that zone."

The Earth is already close to 1 degree Celsius total warming, Goldstone said. Scientists are already planning for what will happen if and when we exceed the 1.5 degree Celsius limit, she noted.

"What is most likely to happen is we'll actually need to pull carbon out of the atmosphere to bring it back to that level of 1.5C or so of total global warming, to stabilize the climate," Goldstone said.