Paris climate treaty

According to a UN report, 2017 is on track to be one of the three hottest years on record. The cause, it says, is climate change, which the report implicates in “extraordinary weather,” including extreme hurricanes, floods, and droughts.

There is only a 5 percent chance that efforts to prevent global temperatures from rising less than 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century — the goal of the Paris climate deal — will succeed, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The European Union hopes to enlist American cities and states to lower greenhouse gas emissions, now that President Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate treaty, Reuters reports.