Science - USA (2022-04-08)

science.org SCIENCE

PHOTO: ART WAGER/GETTY IMAGES

T

he world’s governments must immediately make

a wholesale switch to carbon-free energy to have a

shot at preventing catastrophic effects of climate

change. That’s the conclusion of the final sec-

tion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change’s Sixth Assessment Report, released this

week, which assesses policies needed to ef-

fectively restrain global warming. The report

updates previous calls by the U.N.-sanctioned

panel and climate scientists for rapid action to

avoid warming above 1.5°C, the threshold for

catastrophic effects such as flooding and crop

failures. Planned fossil fuel plants must be canceled,

most existing plants must be decommissioned, spend-

ing on renewable energy must increase three- to sixfold

by 2030, and politicians must back incentives for these

technologies, it says. Installing new solar and wind farms

and other renewables is already cheaper in many cases

than building new fossil fuel power plants, the

report adds. U.N. Secretary-General António

Guterres called the report “a file of shame” and

“litany of broken climate promises” by govern-

ment and business leaders “that put us firmly

on track toward an unlivable world.”

NEWS

WHO pauses India vaccine supply

COVID-19|The World Health Organization

(WHO) last week suspended shipments

through U.N. channels of a COVID-

vaccine made in India after an inspec-

tion revealed manufacturing deficiencies.

WHO said Bharat Biotech, maker of the

Covaxin vaccine, which uses an inactivated

virus, promised to stop exporting it to

any customer until the firm addresses the

problems. But the company said it will

continue to sell doses from the plant for

use in India. The country is the largest

consumer of Covaxin, with 308 million

doses administered so far. India’s drug

regulatory body, the Central Drugs Standard

Control Organization, has not taken regula-

tory action or commented on WHO’s move.

WHO’s action is significant because it

authorized Covaxin’s use in November 2021,

IN BRIEF

Edited by Jeffrey Brainard

CLIMATE POLICY

IPCC makes new pitch for renewables, fast climate action

“

In many ways, justice has not been served.

”

Anthropologist Eben Kirksey, in MIT Technology Review, noting that although

He Jiankui has just been released from a Chinese prison after a 3-year term for creating gene-edited

babies, his U.S. collaborators faced no punishment. Kirksey wrote a book about the case.

To reduce emissions,

many more

houses need rooftop

solar panels,

like these in Dallas,

a report says.

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