Science - USA (2021-10-29)

science.org SCIENCE

A

s world leaders converge on Glasgow, U.K., for

a climate summit beginning 31 October, a series

of reports show the world is far from meeting

a promise to try to hold global temperature in-

creases below the 1.5°C target that could avert

the worst impacts of climate change. To meet

the temperature target, set in the 2015 Paris

climate agreement, nations need to cut

greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030,

but current pledges would trim emissions by

only 7.5%, the United Nations Environment

Programme (UNEP) warned this week.

Meanwhile, countries’ detailed plans show

they expect to increase fossil fuel production until

at least 2040, despite commitments to reduce emis-

sions to net-zero by 2050, a coalition of research in-

stitutes and UNEP reported on 20 October. “Countries

have not yet done the work of translating what their

climate pledges mean to [management of ] fossil fuel

markets,” says co-author Peter Erickson of

the Stockholm Environment Institute. At the

Glasgow meeting, countries are expected to

increase their targets for emissions cuts for

the first time since the Paris agreement estab-

lished initial targets and a schedule for tight-

ening the commitments.

PHOTO: STUART WALKER/I-IMAGES/EYEVI NE/REDUX

NEWS

IN BRIEF

More vaccine boosters authorized

COVID-19|The U.S. Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) last week opened

the floodgates for people in the United

States to receive booster shots of COVID-

vaccines. Building on a September decision

that allowed widespread use of third shots

for the Pfizer vaccine, FDA now says data

support a third shot of Moderna’s similar

product, at least 6 months after the first

two. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines

contain messenger RNA that codes for the

viral surface protein called spike. Everyone

age 65 and older is eligible, along with

people as young as 18 if they are at high

risk of severe COVID-19, are exposed at

work, or live in nursing homes, prisons,

or other institutions. FDA also decided

that everyone 18 and older who received

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which uses

an adenovirus to deliver a gene for spike

and was authorized as a single dose, can

now receive a second shot. And FDA gave

mixing and matching a green light: People

who have completed the primary course of

injections and are eligible for boosters can

receive any of the three vaccines to fortify

their immune responses.

Sensors spot Mexico monuments

ARCHAEOLOGY|A large airborne laser

mapping survey of Maya and Olmec sites

in southern Mexico has revealed nearly

500 Mesoamerican monuments. Several of

GLOBAL WARMING

Climate summit opens as carbon dioxide cuts lag

“

It’s highly unlikely that it is really from

a transmitter out at Proxima Centauri.

”

Andrew Siemion of the Breakthrough Listen project, on a striking radio signal that

seemed to come from a nearby star but now appears to be human-generated interference.

Edited byJeffrey Brainard

516 29 OCTOBER 2021 • VOL 374 ISSUE 6567

En route to the

climate summit

in Glasgow, U.K., Bamber

Hawes (right) walks

with his sculpture

Clarion the Polar Bear

to raise awareness

of the climate crisis.