UN warns world must take ‘unprecedented’ steps to avert worst effects of global warming
INCHEON, Republic of Korea — Society would have to enact “unprecedented” changes to how it consumes energy, travels and builds to meet a lower global warming target or it risks increases in heat waves, flood-causing storms and the chances of drought in some regions as well as the loss of species, a UN report said on Monday.
Keeping the Earth’s temperature rise to only 1.5 C rather than the 2 C target agreed to at the Paris Agreement talks in 2015, would have “clear benefits to people and natural ecosystems”, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said on Monday in a statement announcing the report’s release.
The 48th IPCC session lasted for five days to Friday in the Republic of Korea’s western port city of Incheon, bringing together about 570 representatives from over 130 countries and international organizations.
“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,” said Zhai Panmao, co-chair of IPCC Working Group.
Maintaining the 1.5 C target would keep the global sea level rise 0.1 meter lower by 2100 than a 2 C target, the report states. That could reduce flooding and give the people that inhabit the world’s coasts, islands and river deltas time to adapt to climate change.
The lower target would also reduce species loss and extinction and the impact on terrestrial, freshwater and coastal ecosystems, the report said.
“There were doubts if we would be able to differentiate impacts set at 1.5 C and that came so clearly. Even the scientists were surprised to see how much science was already there and how much they could really differentiate and how great are the benefits of limiting global warming at 1.5 compared to 2,” Thelma Krug, vice-chair of the IPCC, said in an interview.
“And now more than ever we know that every bit of warming matters.”
The report is seen as the main scientific guide for government policymakers on how to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement during the Katowice Climate Change Conference in Poland in December.
To contain warming at 1.5 C, man-made global net carbon dioxide emissions would need to fall by about 45 percent by 2030 from 2010 levels and reach “net zero” by midcentury. Any additional emissions would require removing CO2 from the air.
If the average global temperature temporarily exceeded 1.5 C, additional carbon removal techniques would be required to return warming to below 1.5 C by 2100.