Hansen, COPs, and Scientific Understatement

Over the past three decades, global climate summits such as Rio, Kyoto, Paris, and most recently COP30 in Belém have repeatedly promised urgent action, yet emissions remain at record highs and warming continues to accelerate.



While official narratives, including those of the IPCC, often present cautiously optimistic scenarios, scientists like James Hansen warn that the true risks are greater: climate sensitivity may be higher, aerosol cooling weaker, and additional warming already “locked in.” His findings suggest that staying below 1.5-2 °C of warming may no longer be realistic under current trajectories, underscoring the need for faster, deeper, and more candid climate action than political processes have so far delivered.
Hansen, J. E. et al. (2023). Global warming in the pipeline, Oxford Open Climate Change, Volume 3, Issue 1, 2023, kgad008, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfclm/kgad008 Hansen, J. E. et al. (2025). Global Warming Has Accelerated: Are the United Nations and the Public Well-Informed? Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 67(1), 6–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.2025.2434494

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