Climate warning over floods and rising seas

FLOODING and sea level rises caused by global warming will get worse, world leaders are expected to be told today as a study reveals the dangers of failing to meet the Paris climate goals.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN body of international experts, is to release an updated summary of the science around global warming this morning.

The report will update a 2018 study focused on the target to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, which found that the goal, agreed by almost every global nation in 2015, was on course to be breached within decades. The 2018 study warned this would lead to flooding threats to islands and coastal communities as well as danger to health and livelihoods.

It comes ahead of the Cop26 global summit in Glasgow in November, which is seen by scientists and politicians as a crucial chance to secure agreement on cutting emissions in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

A government source said today’s report’s conclusions should “focus minds” and that countries should come to Glasgow with “ambitious proposals on coal, cars, cash and trees”. “It is domestic phase-out of coal, it is moving towards electric vehicles, cash from richer nations – $100billion a year – and reversing deforestation,” the source said.

The Paris Agreement saw nearly every country sign up to efforts to limit global warming to less than 2C while “pursuing” efforts to limit it to 1.5C. Scientists have said that breaching the lower goal would be catastrophic, with low-lying and island nations and marine life particularly expected to suffer.

Yesterday, Alok Sharma, the minister for Cop26, said the world was getting “dangerously close” to running out of time to tackle the issue. “We can’t afford to wait two years, five years, 10 years – this is the moment,” he said.