Nations agree landmark UN climate report after marathon talks
GENEVA: Negotiators from 195 countries yesterday finalised the most comprehensive scientific assessment yet of how the land we live off affects climate change, after marathon talks in Geneva, sources told AFP. The land use report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), running over 1,000 pages compiled by 108 scientists drawing from thousands of data points, is expected to spell out the stark choices facing a warming planet with a growing, hungry population. Experts from around the world have spent the last few days poring over the report’s summary for policymakers — a concise rundown of the science containing a range of possible solutions and trade-offs. A key sticking point during negotiations was the role of bioenergy — power derived from burning plant matter — and to what extent such schemes should be rolled out to combat climate change.
Bioenergy, and other largely untested geo-engineering initiatives, will require an enormous amount of land to achieve the emissions reductions needed to limit temperature rises to 1.5C (2.6 Farenheit) above preindustrial levels. With the world’s population expected to rise to 10 billion by mid-century, there are fears there is simply not enough land to both sustainably feed people and mitigate climate change.
Sources close to the talks in Geneva said countries with large forest cover, including Canada, Brazil, Sweden and Norway, had pushed for a greater role for bioenergy in climate planning, something nations already facing desertification and drought pushed back on. The final summary for policymakers will be made public today and is expected to highlight food inequality on a global scale, with two billion adults overweight or obese sharing a planet with 820 million suffering chronic hunger.
UK residents return home
In related news, Residents evacuated last week from an English town threatened with flooding after a nearby reservoir partially collapsed were allowed to return to their homes yesterday, police said. More than 1,500 people had been evacuated from the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge after part of the dam wall of the Toddbrook Reservoir disintegrated Thursday following heavy rain. Hundreds of emergency workers had since worked around the clock to pump water out of the reservoir to ease pressure on the wall. A military Chinook helicopter also dropped hundreds of tonnes of stone and gravel in sacks to shore up the damaged portion.
“The hard work and dedication to achieve this has been quite simply incredible and means that I am now able to lift the evacuation order placed on Whaley Bridge and the surrounding area,” Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Swann said in a statement from Derbyshire Police. “The danger posed by the millions of tons of water, which would have destroyed homes and livelihoods, could not be underestimated,” she added.
Swann said further work would be completed by Britain’s Environment Agency to assess the extent of the damage caused to the dam wall and what action would be required. Residents had been forced to spend nearly a week away from their homes and were only allowed back briefly over the weekend to collect essential items. Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the area on Friday, where he said the 180-year-old dam would require a “major rebuild”, while opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also paid a visit Monday.