IPCC authors have expressed doubt that nations can turn around the climate crisis.

In a recent survey, 60 per cent of 92 responding scientists - comprising 40 per cent of the latest IPCC report’s authors - said they expect the world will warm by at least 3°C or higher by 2100. 

Only about one in five scientists said they anticipate global warming will be limited to 2°C or below, and more than 60 per cent said they suffer from climate-related anxiety, grief or distress.

The latest IPCC climate-science report, approved by 195 governments in August, concluded that fossil fuel emissions are driving unprecedented planetary changes, threatening both people and the ecosystems that humans rely on for food and other resources. 

Experts from the science journal Nature conducted an anonymous survey of 233 authors who are part of the IPCC working group charged with assessing the causes and extent of climate change and received responses from 92 scientists — nearly 40 per cent of the group. 

Those who took part did so in a personal capacity, not as representatives of the IPCC.

Eighty eight per cent said they think the world is experiencing a ‘climate crisis’, and nearly as many said they expected to see catastrophic impacts of climate change in their lifetimes. 

Just under half responded that global warming has caused them to reconsider major life decisions, such as where to live and whether to have children, while more than 60 per cent said that they experience anxiety, grief or other distress because of concerns over climate change. 

However, the survey also found signs of optimism: more than 20 per cent of the scientists said they expect nations to limit global warming to 2 °C or less, and 4 per cent said the world may meet the target of limiting warming to 1.5 °C.

More details are accessible here.