There's Still Hope To Avoid Climate Disaster If Emissions Peak By 2025: What IPCC Report Said

The world has three years to avoid a major climate catastrophe, that is the warning UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued to the world leaders, asking them to do more to combat climate change.

According to the 2,800-page report of the IPCC, if global greenhouse gas emissions don't peak by 2025 and reduce by 43% in the subsequent five years, the world will have to face warming of around 3 degree C by 2100.

AFP

Disastrous consequences

A 3-degree warming by 2100 will have disastrous consequences such as longer heat waves days, forest fires, sea level rise, melting of glaciers, droughts and cyclones, it said. The global average temperature has already increased to 1.1 degree Celsius from pre-industrial (1850-1900) levels.

Barely 1.1C of warming so far has ushered in a surge of deadly extreme weather across the globe.

BCCL

The report makes clear that investments to cut emissions will be far less expensive than the cost of failing to limit warming.

Scientists warn that any rise above 1.5C risks the collapse of ecosystems and the triggering of irreversible shifts in the climate system.

To achieve that target, the report said carbon emissions need to drop 43 percent by 2030 and 84 percent by mid-century.

"It's now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5C," said Jim Skea, a professor at Imperial College London and co-chair of the working group behind the report.

Radically reduce fossil fuels

"Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible."

To do that the world must radically reduce the fossil fuels behind the lion's share of emissions.

AP

Nations should stop burning coal completely and cut oil and gas use by 60 and 70 percent respectively to keep within the Paris goals, the IPCC said, noting that both solar and wind were now cheaper than fossil fuels in many places.

Suck CO2 out of atmosphere

But cutting emissions is no longer enough, the IPCC said. Technologies to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere -- not yet operating to scale -- will need to be ramped up enormously.

While government policies, investments and regulations will propel emissions cuts, the IPCC made clear that individuals can also make a big difference.

Cutting back on long-haul flights, switching to plant-based diets, climate-proofing buildings and other ways of cutting the consumption that drives energy demand could reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 to 70 percent by 2050.

Those with the most, also pollute the most, the report said.

Representational Image

"Projected global emissions from (national pledges) place limiting global warming to 1.5C beyond reach and make it harder after 2030 to limit warming to 2C,'' the panel said.

In other words, the report's co-chair, James Skea of Imperial College London, told The Associated Press: "If we continue acting as we are now, we're not even going to limit warming to 2 degrees, never mind 1.5 degrees."

Ongoing investments in fossil fuel infrastructure and clearing large swaths of forest for agriculture undermine the massive curbs in emissions needed to meet the Paris goal, the report found.

AP

Emissions in 2019 were about 12% higher than they were in 2010 and 54% higher than in 1990, said Skea.

The rate of growth has slowed from 2.1% per year in the early part of this century to 1.3% per year between 2010 and 2019, the report's authors said. But they voiced ``high confidence'' that unless countries step up their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the planet will on average be 2.4C to 3.5C (4.3 to 6.3 F) warmer by the end of the century _ a level experts say is sure to cause severe impacts for much of the world's population.

"Limiting warming to 1.5C requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest and be reduced by 43% by 2030,'' he said.

"Litany of broken climate promises"

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed "a litany of broken climate promises'' by governments and corporations, accusing them of stoking global warming by clinging to harmful fossil fuels.

"It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track toward an unlivable world,'' he said.

For more on news, sports and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.