Now or never: One of the biggest climate reports ever shows time is running out

The chance to secure a livable future for everyone on Earth is slipping away.

That was the dire message from a United Nations report released Monday, the culmination of more than six years of work by thousands of climate scientists contributing to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

“There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all,” the report’s authors wrote. 

Still, there’s hope. 

The technology needed to adapt to climate change and keep harmful emissions at bay is available, the report said, arguing that a clear path exists to a more sustainable world and a stable climate.  

“Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee said in a statement. The report “shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all.”