Climate change has disproportionately affected the world’s most vulnerable people, and climate deaths have soared compared to wealthier nations, according to the most comprehensive report to date on the impacts of global warming on our planet.
“The report shows that climate impacts are undermining our livelihoods, harming the global economy and threatening our life support system, nature itself.”, said the president of the IPCC, Hoesung Lee, at a press conference in Interlaken, Switzerland, days ago.
He AR6 Synthesis Report The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals that more frequent and intense droughts, threats to food and water, disease and death are occurring as a consequence of climate change, with pandemics and conflicts making them more difficult to deal with. to manage.
Each increment of warming results in rapidly increasing dangers, scientists warn.
However, Lee also noted the “multiple, viable and effective options” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change, thus preventing climate deaths from increasing further.
“These change options are now available.” he said. “The question is, can we implement them quickly and effectively?”
‘Acceleration Schedule’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was proposing a “Acceleration Schedule” towards a Climate Solidarity Pact that would see big emitters make deeper cuts in emissions and help emerging economies to do the same.
“1.5 degree threshold is achievable”, he said at the Swiss press conference via video link. “But it will take a quantum leap in climate action”.
Deep, rapid and sustained cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are needed across all sectors to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the report says, making clear that the current pace and scale of change are not enough.
Emissions should almost halve by 2030 if warming is limited to 1.5 degrees, recommends the IPCC.
“Governments have no excuse to ignore the emphatic warning for this critical decadesaid Harjeet Singh, head of global policy strategy for Climate Action Network International, a network of more than 1,900 civil society organizations in more than 130 countries.
“They must act quickly to reject fossil fuels and stop any further expansion of oil, gas and coal.”.
carbon bomb
However, the announcement comes just seven days after the US approved drilling at the Willow Project oil field in northern Alaska, nicknamed “carbon bomb” by activists who say it will contribute as much CO2 to the atmosphere as 66 coal-fired power plants.
Singh added that the report, which includes contributions from more than 700 scientists from around the world, is not without solutions or hope, but that increasing funding would be crucial.
“Governments must strengthen efforts to protect communities from worsening irreversible climate impacts, such as rising sea levels and melting glaciers, which pose an existential threat to many communities.“, he said.
‘People will starve’
AR6 integrates findings from six IPCC climate reports published since the 2015 Paris climate agreement, providing the most comprehensive body of scientific evidence on climate change to date.
Aditi Mukherji, one of the 93 authors of the report, said his focus on solutions sets him apart from others.
“Although climate change has reduced the food safetythe IPCC Sixth Assessment Report shows that there are a number of adaptation options that can be effective in reducing their impacts”, he said and it is a way to avoid climate deaths.
“These include more weather-resistant crops, better water management and storage, irrigation, and diversification at the farm and landscape levels.”.
Small farmers bear the brunt of climate change but receive less than two percent of climate finance, says Mukherji, also director of the Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Impact Area Platform of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). ) .
“If we don’t increase climate finance for food systems, more people will go hungry“, he said.
The IPCC report, which is the latest in a cycle of six IPCC reviews, was approved on Sunday, after days of intense round-the-clock negotiations between governments and scientists in Interlaken.
‘call to attention’
Samoa’s ambassador to the UN, Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Pa’olelei Luteru, president of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), said the findings should be a wake-up call to the international community.
“These findings reaffirm, as AOSIS has continually asserted, that keeping 1.5 alive is imperative for the sustainable development of small islands: our citizens suffer most from a crisis we did not cause.“, he said.
He said people living on islands in the Pacific and Caribbean are being displaced from their homes as the fossil fuel industry rakes in billions of dollars in profits.
“AOSIS calls on the international community to close the gap and make concerted progress on the work program to urgently increase mitigation ambition and implementation’ he added.
