War and the cost of living crisis must not distract Britain from meeting its climate targets

Editorial: It may not be dominating the headlines, for obvious reasons, but climate danger remains the defining, transcendent challenge for this generation

(Brian Adcock)

There is much despairing talk about having to turn away from renewables and burn yet more hydrocarbons because of the impact of the war in Ukraine, illogical and dangerous as it would be to do so.

It is, then, something of a relief that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the pre-eminent experts – have chosen this moment of multiple crises to reiterate that the world can still halve carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.

Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5C (against pre-1850 levels) is beyond reach – but it can be done. War or no war, the planet can be saved, and there is no need to allow the climate deniers to prevail in their efforts to use the cost of living crisis and the agonies of Ukraine as an excuse to allow the world to revert to the path of destruction.