Landmark UN climate report warns time quickly running out

In a report released late Sunday, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the global community still has a chance of limiting the average increase in temperatures to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, a goal sanctioned by the Paris climate agreement three years ago.

“Countries like India, with large populations dependent on the agricultural and fishery sectors, would be highly impacted”, he said. The report also examines pathways available to limit warming to 1.5 °C, what it would take to achieve them and what the consequences could be.

During that historic conference in Paris three years ago, 197 nations (over 170 states and the European Union) had adopted new targets to help curb global warming, but in a controversial move, Donald Trump pulled the US out in June 2017, saying it was “unfair” to this country. The EU’s share of global greenhouse gas emissions fell from an estimated 17.3% in 1990 to 9.9% in 2012.

It notes that to prevent that such damage would require a cessation of global-warming emissions in just a few years-and acknowledges the political unlikelihood of such a solution, especially in the United States. By midcentury, we have to reach net zero emissions.

Under the Paris Agreement rules, the United States can not actually pull out of the pact until late 2020.

The Summary for Policymakers (SPM) presents the key findings of the Special Report, based on the assessment of the available scientific, technical and socio-economic literature relevant to global warming of 1.5 °C.

Neither Premier Ford nor Mr. Kenney have yet said what policies they would employ to cut emissions, or whether they support Canada’s objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 – a commitment made under the Paris accord.

If emissions can’t be cut to a sufficient degree, researchers will need to devise effective methods of removing Carbon dioxide from the air, such as devoting land to growing trees and biofuel crops, Erik Solheim, executive director of the UN Environment Program, tells The Washington Post.

The world has reached a fork in the road with two paths ahead: a planet that’s 2°C warmer than pre-industrial levels and a planet that’s 1.5°C warmer.

Limting global warming to the newly-agreed target of 1.5°C is “possible within the laws of chemistry and physics”, co-chair of IPCC Working Group III Jim Skea said of the shift.

The newly published IPCC report highlights and compares the predicted severity of numerous climate change threats in scenarios with a 1.5°C, and 2°C temperature rise.

“Many parts of the world will see mean temperature increases that, in time, will be higher than 1.5°C, including the South West of Western Australia”, Dr Kala said.

A target was in place for the world to stop the global temperature rising more than 1.5C.

The IPCC report is undeniably grim, but its authors state that the 1.5°C target can still be met if unprecedented, wide-ranging action is taken straight away. It would also cut down on species loss and extinction and reduce the impact on various ecosystems. Climate change is happening and its effects are being felt all over the world.

Countries must take “unprecedented” action to slash carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and limit unsafe global warming, a key report warns. That will cause coastlines to become inundated and storms more severe, intensifying poverty in coastal regions and islands, particularly in the tropics. Industries and investors need to be bold and far-sighted, for example by cutting all links to fossil fuels and supporting a carbon price.

NH Ravindranath, of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), who has been an IPCC author and specialises in forestry, says, “Climate change is already impacting natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems even at current level of warming of 1°C”.

“Accordingly, the world would witness greater sea level rise, increased precipitation and higher frequency of droughts and floods, hotter days and heatwaves, more intense tropical cyclones, and increased ocean acidification and salinity”.