Scientists warn: World must act now to defuse ‘climate time bomb’

The world must take urgent action to defuse a “climate time bomb” that will have catastrophic environmental consequences and climate change, United Nations scientists said in the latest of four key assessment reports for governments on Monday (March 20th).

Governments must “rapidly, deeply and immediately” reduce global emissions of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is the largest source of human-caused climate change, to begin reducing annual emissions by 2025 and halve it by 2030. Climate Change UN (IPCC). If temperature changes are to remain at or below the dangerous threshold of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial temperatures, these reductions in carbon dioxide emissions must be made worldwide and across all industries, the IPCC said.

Scientists warn that exceeding this 1.5C threshold significantly increases the risk of encountering tipping points that can cause irreversible climate disruptions – for example, the complete collapse of most of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets; strong heat; severe droughts; water stress; and extreme weather conditions in large parts of the world.

The summary report, which offers an almost panoptic view of the threats posed by climate change and what humanity can do to stop it, says that even if all emission reduction policies previously promised by governments are fully implemented by 2020, the world will still continue. warm. With a disastrous 5.8 F (3.2 C) by 2100. It is argued that the answer to preventing such an extreme rise in temperature must be capital investment that will lead to significant reductions in global carbon emissions and the transition to clean energy solutions.

“The climate time bomb is working. But today’s IPCC report is a guide to defusing a climate time bomb. “This is a survival guide for humanity,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He said at a press conference on Monday. The 1.5 degree limit is quite achievable. But this will require significant progress in the fight against climate change. In short, our world needs climate action on all fronts – in everything, everywhere, simultaneously.”

The fourth and final chapter of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, the Synthesis Report, summarizes the key findings from the previous three chapters of the report to provide a broad picture of the global climate. The first part of the report looked at the realities of climate change; second, it detailed the impact of climate change on human societies, finding that half of the world’s population is highly vulnerable to the climate crisis; and third, it evaluated current mitigation strategies, emphasizing that the barriers to action are political rather than technological.

As with previous parts of the report, the final report was the result of intense negotiations between hundreds of climate scientists and government officials from nearly 200 countries who reviewed the policy brief line-by-line before it was published. According to Politico, the document was originally scheduled to be published in October 2022, but was stalled after a delay of more than five months following a strike by scientists working on it.

The IPCC later postponed the deadline to Friday, March 17, but negotiation over key parts of the text by officials from the United States, China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the European Union made the final leg of the session the 40th-hour weekend to complete the report. . IPCC reports usually take six to seven years to prepare, so this report will likely be the UN body’s last warning before 2030 that a possible 1.5C warming limit will be exceeded and some irreversible climate tipping points will be avoided.

“The choices we make now will have consequences for decades, and possibly millennia,” Mark Howden, vice chair of the IPCC Working Group II and peer review editor of the IPCC Synthesis Report, said at a press conference. “There are many options for adapting to climate change that provide significant side benefits, including reduced emissions. However, the implementation of these adaptations is not keeping up with the changes we are seeing. This report tells us how we can do better.”

Fortunately, we can significantly reduce emissions. The report says humanity has the technical ability to halve global emissions by 2030, and the costs of these reductions pale in comparison to the costs of climate change. The report also highlights the importance of climate justice for a successful transition. The top 10% of people account for 36% to 45% of global greenhouse gas emissions, write the IPPC authors.

“Integrating effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce harm and loss to nature and people, but also deliver broader benefits,” IPCC chairman Husung Lee said in a statement. said. “This summary report highlights the need for more ambitious action and shows that if we act now, we can secure a livable, sustainable future for all.”