Climate opportunities in U.S. and around the world, but not enough action – Harvard Gazette

Climate change experts were by turns optimistic and pessimistic at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute on Friday. Even as the cost of renewable energy plummets, they said, the slow pace of progress threatens irreversible damage to the planet.

Existing commitments from international leaders would reduce 2010 emissions 7.5 percent by 2030, dramatically short of the 55 percent needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, a level that scientists believe would head off climate change’s most catastrophic effects. The number is also well short of the 30 percent reduction that would…