Hottest year ever adds urgency to drive for climate steps

By Alex Morales

Climate: Now or Never

With 2014 on track to be the world's hottest on record, United Nations officials pressed for urgent action to prevent the most damaging impacts of climate change at the opening of an annual summit on global warming in Lima.

"There has never been so much scientific evidence of the severe and irreversible social and natural effects of climate change," said Manuel Pulgar Vidal, the Peruvian environment minister presiding over the two-week UN conference. "Never has it been so clear that the window of opportunity to reduce emissions is closing quickly."

Greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high in 2013, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said in September. Global temperatures are on track to be the hottest since records began, surpassing 2010, according to preliminary data the agency will publish Dec. 3. The January through October period was the hottest ever.

The meeting follows an agreement last month between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, leaders of the world's two biggest economies, to accelerate efforts to cut greenhouse gases. The accord would help push other nations to negotiate a global pact next year in Paris, they said.