HOTTER & FASTER IN LAST 10 YEARS

Global warming crisis has spiralled out of control since the Paris agreement

- BY SETH BORENSTEIN

THE world has changed dramatically in the decade since leaders celebrated a historic climate agreement in Paris a decade ago, but not quite in ways they expected or wanted.

Earth's warming climate has gotten nastier, much faster than society has been able to wean itself from burning the coal, oil and natural gas that emits carbon pollution which triggers global warming, several scientists and officials said.

There's been progress - more than a degree Celsius has been shaved off future warming projections since 2015 - but the need for more if it will be a big focus for the next two weeks as diplomats gather in Belem, Brazil, for annual United Nations climate negotiations.

"I think it's important that we're honest with the world and we declare failure," said Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research in Germany.

He said warming's harms are happening faster and more severely than scientists predicted.

SPEED

But diplomats aren't giving up.

"We're actually in the direction that we established in Paris at a speed that none of us could have predicted," said former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, who helped shepherd that agreement, which requires countries to come up with plans to fight warming.