Paris Climate Agreement Progress Report; India's Ghoramara Island In Danger Of Disappearing
HOWELL: A greener future. That is what the 2015 Paris climate accord promised and almost three years later those at the</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: December 2015, the Paris climate agreement gave those sounding alarm bells about the future a renewed hope to the planet. Nearly 200 countries pledging to do their part to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels with hopes of capping that number of 1.5.</s>BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This agreement represents the best chance we have had to save the one planet that we got.</s>WALSH: The call to action say most experts not a moment too soon. Hurricanes and typhoons are growing in strength and frequency leaving paths of intense devastation in their wake. Wildfires too, blazing hotter, and scorching the earth more often with more severity. And then</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.</s>WALSH: With the new U.S. President in 2017 came a change in belief and course of action for the nation's second only to China at the top of list in total carbon emissions.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the nonbinding climate accord.</s>WALSH: A climate report just released by Donald Trump's own administration outlined $400 billion in costs to the U.S. since 2015 from natural disaster strengthens by climate change, a number that is expected to increase as the world grows warmer. Trump's response --</s>TRUMP: I don't believe it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't believe it?</s>TRUMP: No, no, I don't believe it.</s>WALSH: The tectonic shift in position by the U.S. government, not the only worsened trend. Brazil has rescinded its offer to host the U.N. climate conference next year. With the incoming foreign minister calling climate change, a "Marxist hoax". But the World Meteorological Organization, says otherwise, warning the planets long-term warming trend as far from abated.</s>PETTERI TAALAS, SECRETARY-GENERAL, WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION: 2016 was the -- was the warmest year on record, and 2017 was this -- was the second warmest recorded, and this is 2015 was number three, and this year is number four.</s>WALSH: The situation is so dire, scientists say. If a real change is not made imminently, the planet is on track to warm three to four degrees centigrade by the end of the century. Likely causing widespread food and water shortages, economic catastrophe, and large- scale loss of life. The current data is far from encouraging. Paris agreement largely symbolic in nature had no tangible consequences, the nations that fail to meet their targets, and many are indeed falling short. 2017 sets a record for carbon emissions. A record expected to be broken again in 2018 as new coal power plants fire up across Asia and Africa joining the other fossil fuel plants still active around the globe. And in a bit of ironic fate, Poland this year's host nation for climate talks gets 80 percent of its power from coal. Something that they along with the other industrial nations will have to change, and change soon give the planet a fighting chance for survival. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.</s>HOWELL: Nick, thank you. The lack of progress on global warming is acutely being felt at sea level. In places like coastal India, where one tiny island could someday vanish. It's already shrinking, and as our Nikhil Kumar explains climate change is the culprit.</s>NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN INTERNATIONAL NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: The Indian Island of Ghoramara. Home to some of the world's largest mangrove forests, as well as rare and endangered species. Now, the tiny island is on the verge of disappearing all the cause of climate change. It's just five square kilometers. Located south of the Indian city of Kolkata. It's part of the Sundarban delta in the Bay of Bengal. Sea levels are rising and soil is slowly eroding, swallowing up the island. Scientists say it's because of global warming. The island has lost nearly half its size in two decades according to village elders. Many of the villages have lost their homes. One house stood next to these rice paddy fields, now flooded by rising tides. Reva Sett, lost their home three times in the last decade and had to move further inland each time. Now, she fears for her survival as the land disappears, so do the crops.</s>REVA SETT, RESIDENT, GHORAMARA ISLAND (through translator): We faced a lot of problems. People have nothing to eat once the land is lost to the water. The island is small now, and people have left and gone away.</s>KUMAR: On this island, there's no electricity, no cars, no cell phones. Yet the residents here are forced to deal with the effects of a carbon footprint from far away.</s>SANJIV SAGAR, VILLAGE HEAD, GHORAMARA ISLAND (through translator): The residence here, the 4,800 people who live here, we have to save them. We have to increase the height of the embankment. We have to relocate the residents from here to another better place.</s>KUMAR: A recent U.N. climate change report, warned that global temperatures are on track for 3 to five degree Celsius rise this century. Scientists say, that it's crucial to limit the rise in global temperatures to avoid more extreme weather, rising sea levels, and the loss of plant and animal species. They say the effects of that failure will hit the worlds' poorest especially hard. Like the many villages on Ghoramara Island, who say they want to leave the island but can't afford to. Nikhil Kumar, CNN.</s>HOWELL: Still ahead, millions of migrating birds are filling the skies of Rome. We will tell you why they are ruffle in feathers in the Eternal City and what's being done to scare them away? Stay with us.