As world leaders prepare to arrive in New York for a critical three-day climate action summit at the UN while million of activists are set to strike across the world on Friday.
The Daily Mirror has joined forces with hundreds of newsrooms around the world to strengthen media coverage of the crisis.
More than 250 newsrooms representing 32 countries - with a combined monthly reach of more than a billion people - have signed up to Covering Climate Now, an initiative founded earlier this year to address the urgent need for action.
On Monday September 23rd governments will gather at UN headquarters for Antonio Guterres’ Climate Action Summit - a meeting the UN boss has pitched as a vital in the global climate fight.
But why is this meeting so important and what does it mean?
Here are five things you need to know about the upcoming UN Climate Summit...
What we know so far…
“Bring plans, not speeches,” Antonio Guterres, the UN general secretary told countries.
In a letter sent to every head of state, the UN chief set-out his expectations for the summit, urging governments to come with concrete and meaningful plans for action.
While President Trump is expected to skip the high-level meeting which takes places in New York from 21st September, kick started by the Youth Climate Summit, there is no sign Guterres is planning to back down on his demands.
He asked for governments to quit new coal by 2020, carbon neutrality by 2050, kill fossil fuel subsidies and deliver enhanced climate plans next year.
In fact it seems quote the opposite. His decision to call for “emergency” action has seen him go further than any previous UN Secretary General – and may also lead to change within the UN on how it tackles the crisis.
What can we expect from the Summit?
Latest intel suggests that at the summit there will be around 60 countries committing to deliver more ambitious climate plans by 2020, as the Paris Agreement requires.
Governments have been told they must bring a plan to get a speaking slot. Those lined up include the UK, France, Germany, India, China, Indonesia, Russia, Chile, Finland and a host of small islands.
It is also understood China will explain to the UN how it will meet mid-century decarbonisation target.
The International Panel on Climate Change will release a special report on September 25 setting out current scientific understanding of climate change’s impact on our oceans and our cryosphere – the parts of the planet’s surface where water is in frozen form.
Sources say earlier indications of its findings will be bleak and hard-hitting.
Over 60 multinational companies are also expected to deliver new strategic plans in line with the 1.5C threshold, with Nestle the latest to announce 2050 net zero emissions target.
What it is the Paris Agreement?
Adopted in 2015, it is a landmark agreement to combat climate change unites all the world's nations in a single agreement for the first time in history.
The Key points were to keep global temperatures "well below" 2.0C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times and "endeavour to limit" them even more, to 1.5C.
Also to limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100.
Half a degree might not sound like much but it is the difference between life and death for low-lying coastal countries like Bangladesh and Maldives being wiped out due to rising sea levels.
The Greta-factor
Youth activists in 115 countries and 1000 cities plan to stage climate protests from September 20-27, with the main mobilisation day set for Friday, September 20.
According to Fridays for Future, the organisers, 2400 events are planned, with 145 cities in the US signed up. Global participation is expected to be ten times the size of protests in March this year - well into the millions if that’s the case – which could make it the largest show of force yet.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg - fresh from her voyage across the Atlantic - will address the UN on September 23 in New York - a moment that’s likely to overshadow whatever else is announced that day.
Youth and major campaign groups are expected to ramp up the 'emergency’ rhetoric and call for a ‘line in the sand moment’ where world leaders, mayors and CEOs have to choose whose side they’re on.
Which leaders are coming?
The UN’s decision to only allow leaders who 'have a plan’ the chance to speak could radically cut the number of talking heads.
We know the US president won’t be there on the Monday but should arrive later on in the week, China’s vice premier was thought to be there, but it’s likely another senior official will now attend.
India’s Narendra Modi, France’s Emmanuel Macron, UK PM Boris Johnson and German chancellor Angela Merkel are all set to be there.
South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa will miss meeting due to domestic concerns while Canada, Australia and Brazil’s heads of state will not attend.
However, it is understood Jan Bolsonaro could address the UN general assembly on 24 September.
