While the global economy’s weak performance has led to a corresponding slowdown in the increase in carbon emissions, it amounts to only a short respite. And we are far behind the curve: Because we have been so slow to respond to climate change, achieving the targeted limit of a two-degree (centigrade) rise in global temperature, will require sharp reductions in emissions in the future.
目前最严重的问题是全球变暖。尽管全球经济的差劲表现导致了碳排放增速的相应放缓，但这也仅仅是一个短暂的缓解。在这个问题上我们已经非常落后了：由于我们对气候变化的反应一直都极为缓慢，导致将来要大幅度削减碳排放量才能免于触及全球气温上升2摄氏度这个限制目标。