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What’s at stake

Average global temperatures have already risen about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), compared with preindustrial levels, locking in an immediate future of rising seas, destructive storms and floods, ferocious fires and more severe drought and heat.

At least 85 percent of the planet’s population has already begun to experience the effects of climate change, according to research published in the journal Nature Climate Change. This summer alone, more than 150 people died in violent flooding in Germany and Belgium. In central China, the worst flooding on record displaced 250,000 people. In Siberia, summer temperatures reached as high as 100 degrees, feeding enormous blazes that thawed what was once permanently frozen ground.

“Clearly, we are in a climate emergency. Clearly, we need to address it,” Patricia Espinosa, head of the U.N. climate agency, said Sunday as she welcomed delegates to Glasgow. “Clearly, we need to support the most vulnerable to cope. To do so successfully, greater ambition is now critical.”

If the planet heats even a half-degree more, it could lead to water and food shortages, mass extinctions of plants and animals, and more deadly heat and storms, scientists say.

Sara Noordeen is the chief climate envoy for the Maldives, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Most of the country comprises coral islands that sit only about three feet above sea level. Rising seas as a result of climate change mean the Maldives, which has been inhabited for thousands of years, could be submerged within a few generations.

Mr. Biden’s election has brought “a lot of hope” to countries like hers, Ms. Noordeen said. But, she added, “he needs that legislation to go through as well.”