United Nations climate report calls for immediate action to curb global warming
- by Darrel Baker
- in Sci-tech
- — Oct 11, 2018
The IPCC's report, released today (Monday, October 8), shows the impacts of even 1.5° of warming are far greater than previously expected, but also that it's definitely still feasible to hold warming to that level, according to scientific research organisation Climate Analytics. Morrison says, 'Let's not forget Australia accounts for just over 1% of global emissions.
The report calls for huge changes in land, energy, industry, buildings, transportation and cities. The world now pumps more than 40 billion tons of Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year; the IPCC calls for that number to be cut by more than 1 billion tons per year over the next decade.
Panmao Zhai, co-chair of the IPCC Working Group I (which assesses the science of climate change), said: "One of the key messages that comes out very strongly from this report is that we are already seeing the consequences of 1°C of global warming through more extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, among other changes".
"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. The way we will live in the future will alter depending on the emission pathway we choose to take, and this choice could mean a matter of life and death for many vulnerable communities in India.
The report released this week was written by 91 co-authors from 40 countries, cited more than 6,000 references and incorporated 42,000 comments from governments and experts.
"Every bit of extra warming makes a difference", said Dr Hans-Otto Pörtner of the IPCC.
Moreover, coral reefs, already threatened, would decline by 70-90 per cent with global warming of 1.5°C, whereas virtually all would be lost with 2°C, according to the report.
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At the Paris Agreement in 2015‚ 2 degrees was set as the ceiling we should aim to stay under‚ but that has now shifted to 1.5 degrees.
The United States was initially in the agreement, but President Donald Trump pulled the country out a year and half later, claiming it was unfair to the country.
"E$3 ven with erroneous attribution of extreme weather/climate events and projections using climate models that are running too hot and not fit for objective of projecting 21st century climate change, the IPCC still has not made a strong case for this massive investment to prevent 1.5C warming", she said on her Climate Etc. blog.
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. "The next few years will be critical in the evolution of these efforts".
In the report, all scenarios rely in some way on so-called Carbon Dioxide Removal technologies, such as afforestation, reforestation, soil carbon sequestration, and the largely untested and controversial BECCS - bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. But the report warns that "the effectiveness of such techniques are unproven at large scale and some may carry significant risks for sustainable development".
Another aspect would be the phase-out of coal and a reduction in the amount of natural gas used for power generation. Despite the report's dire warnings, there is no indication such cooperation will be doable, particularly given the Trump administration's stance on this issue.
Quoted in Tuesday's Guardian article about the dangers of ignoring potential tipping points, Nobel prize laureate Mario Molina, who shared the award for chemistry in 1995 for his work on ozone depletion, said: "The IPCC report demonstrates that it is still possible to keep the climate relatively safe, provided we muster an unprecedented level of cooperation, extraordinary speed and heroic scale of action".