Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report
www.ipcc.ch
The latest UN report on climate change is pretty damning, so I'm not surprised people aware of this knowledge and our impending doom will take to action while the rest of conservative and liberal populous tut-tuts protests and screams to do something. This is the biggest existential threat of our times. Due to this awareness and news of this protest, how many of you are now going to read the report or find out what's happening when you didn't know before?
A report released Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a litany of broken climate promises. Together with the IPCC's previous two reports on physical science and adaptation in the past year, it reveals the yawning gap between climate pledges and reality. And the reality is that we are speeding toward disastrous global warming of more than double the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, as cited in the Paris agreement of 2016.
So far, high-emitting governments and corporations are not just turning a blind eye; they are adding fuel to the flames by continuing to invest in climate-choking industries. Scientists warn that we are already perilously close to tipping points that could lead to cascading and irreversible climate effects.
The new IPCC report arrives in a period of extraordinary global political and economic turbulence that has further jeopardized efforts to address climate change. Energy prices spiked after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, prompting several nations to increase fossil-fuel production. In the long run, that will only make matters worse.
The IPCC report lays out a saner, safer approach, one that would get the world back on track by using renewable solutions that provide green jobs, energy security and greater price stability.
This report is a blueprint to bring us back to the 1.5-degree pledge that nearly 200 nations made in Paris and renewed at the COP26 gathering in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.
We left Scotland with a naive optimism, based on new promises and commitments. But the main problem — the enormous, growing emissions gap — was all but ignored.
The science is clear. To keep the 1.5-degree limit within reach, we need to cut global emissions by 45 percent this decade. But current climate pledges would mean a 14 percent increase in emissions. And most major emitters are not taking the steps needed to fulfill even these inadequate promises.
Leaders who claim to be protecting their people by doubling down on fossil fuels are doing the exact opposite: throwing their people to the wolves of energy insecurity, price volatility and climate chaos.
A new flagship UN report on climate change out Monday indicating that harmful carbon emissions from 2010-2019 have never been higher in human history, is proof that the world is on a “fast track” to disaster, António Guterres has warned, with scientists arguing that it’s ‘now or never’ to limit...
news.un.org
"We are at a crossroads. The decisions we make now can secure a liveable future," said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. "I am encouraged by climate action being taken in many countries. There are policies, regulations and market instruments that are proving effective. If these are scaled up and applied more widely and equitably, they can support deep emissions reductions and stimulate innovation."
To limit global warming to around 1.5C (2.7°F), the IPCC report insisted that global greenhouse gas emissions would have to peak "before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43 per cent by 2030".
A great deal of importance is attached to IPCC assessments because they provide governments with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies.
They also play a key role in international negotiations to tackle climate change.
Among the sustainable and emissions-busting solutions that are available to governments, the IPCC report emphasised that rethinking how cities and other urban areas function in future could help significantly in mitigating the worst effects of climate change.
"These (reductions) can be achieved through lower energy consumption (such as by creating compact, walkable cities), electrification of transport in combination with low-emission energy sources, and enhanced carbon uptake and storage using nature," the report suggested. "There are options for established, rapidly growing and new cities," it said.
Echoing that message, IPCC Working Group III Co-Chair, Priyadarshi Shukla, insisted that "the right policies, infrastructure and technology…to enable changes to our lifestyles and behaviour, can result in a 40 to 70 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. "The evidence also shows that these lifestyle changes can improve our health and wellbeing."
