We are at a critical juncture in the fight to tackle the climate emergency. The final part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s sixth assessment report released on Monday said the world could cut carbon dioxide emissions significantly to avoid the worst impacts of warming. Only a few more years left. The report calls on countries to step up their commitments to cut enough greenhouse gas emissions to cut global emissions by 60% by 2035.
“The rate of temperature increase in the last half-century is the highest it has been in 2000. The concentration of carbon dioxide will be the highest in at least two million years. “But today’s IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time bomb. It’s humanity’s survival guide.”
Every 6 to 7 years, the IPCC conducts a conference on climate science to reach conclusions about what is known about the causes of climate change, what its impacts will be, and how to mitigate and adapt to climate change. We have compiled thousands of peer-reviewed studies based on the latest findings. The final part of this 6th Assessment Report summarizes the science detailed in previous articles released over the past few years. It provides a starting point for negotiators looking to implement the landmark Paris Climate Agreement. Under the treaty, countries agreed to keep temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, and ideally below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Among the findings of the overall report, the scientists “can clearly show that the Earth has warmed by about 1.2 degrees.” [C] Piers Forster, a climate scientist at the University of Leeds, UK and IPCC author, said at a webinar hosted by the World Resources Institute (WRI) last week: That warming is “obviously” caused by human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, the report said.
Similarly, climate scientists can clearly link these temperature rises to more frequent and intense heat waves, floods, droughts, and other extreme weather events. These extreme events contribute to biodiversity loss, increased tree mortality, worsening wildfires, and carbon loss from natural systems such as permafrost. Jofre Carnicer, an ecologist at the University of Barcelona and an IPCC author, told a WRI event, “All these processes are already being affected by climate change.
“These extremes will get worse as temperatures continue to rise,” Forster said at the webinar. Already, more than 3 billion people live in places highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to the report. And the higher the temperature, the more expensive and less viable it will be to adapt.
The current trajectory of greenhouse gas concentrations continuing to rise “means that temperatures will rise from where we are now, no matter what we do,” says Forster, but the future It’s in our hands. If humans can limit emissions on an ambitious scale, extreme deterioration can be avoided.
At current emissions levels, the world will exceed 1.5°C sometime in the 2030s. Taryn Fransen, senior fellow at the World Resources Institute and co-author of another UN report on the gap between current emissions and the reductions needed to avoid warming, said in a webinar: To avoid that, he said, “emissions should peak essentially quickly.” .
Existing national emission reduction pledges will cause the world to warm 2.4-2.6°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. 2.8 degrees by the end of the century.
Guterres called on countries to commit to net-zero global emissions by 2050, and called on the developed countries that have contributed most to climate change to do so by 2040.
Some type of carbon removal, whether natural (e.g. in the form of trees) or technological, is necessary to meet the targets set under the Paris Agreement. should be phased out to Fransen said existing and planned infrastructure “will blow away the remaining carbon budget, the carbon emissions he can emit before reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius.” That infrastructure alone is 67% over her budget, she added, not considering other sources of emissions.
Significant financial investments are required to make the necessary reductions in emissions and provide sufficient resources to enable communities to adequately adapt to the inevitable changes. This means shifting investments from fossil fuels to clean energy and climate-related projects, but there are currently many political and social hurdles to doing so.
In a recent press conference video, Guterres said, “This report is a clear call to massively accelerate climate action across all countries, all sectors and all timeframes. “In short, our world needs climate action on all fronts. All, everywhere, at once.”
