UN climate panel chair: Paris deal target of 1.5 degrees 'big ask'

Jim Skea, the new chairman of the influential of the UN Climate Science Panel , has doubts about the world's ability to meet the Paris Agreement's most ambitious temperature target, but wants to make it easier for governments to act.

The overall picture: In an interview with Axios, Skea said that policymakers are signaling that they need more information that could be more actionable, faster, than what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has historically produced.

• "It's a bit of an evolution for the IPCC to do that, especially when we're being asked not to be prescriptive policy, but to act," Skea said. "It's also a fine tightrope to walk on."
• For example, the next major assessment report is not scheduled to be completed and fully published until 2030, but countries have until 2028 to report to the global community on emissions reductions to date and set new reduction targets.
• The Nobel Prize-winning body is made up of volunteer scientists from around the world. The main question facing the IPCC is how much of the next report (or other scientific product) can be produced and delivered to policymakers in time for their deadline.

(Andrew Freedman)