Adaptation summit tackles 'neglected half of the climate equation'

A photograph of Australia's Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
27 January 2021

International leaders have pledged to build a "climate-resilient world" at a virtual summit on adapting to rising sea levels, worsening droughts, more extreme heat waves and compounding food and water scarcity.

The summit heard climate-related hazards have killed more than 410,000 people in the past decade.

New US climate envoy John Kerry said the world was heading towards "fundamentally unliveable conditions" with current emissions, and the world should do all it can to keep within the Paris 1.5 degree temperature target.

"There is simply no adapting to a 3 or 4 degree world except perhaps for the very richest and most privileged," former senator Kerry told the summit.

Read the full aricle on The Canberra Times website, featuring ANU Vice-Chancellor Prof Brian Schmidt