“Humanity stands on a thin layer of ice, and that ice is melting rapidly…The goal of limiting the temperature to 1.5C is achievable but will require a huge leap in climate action…There is no time to lose“These are words pronounced this Monday by the UN Secretary General, Antnio Guterres, during the presentation of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC, the group of experts on climate change linked to the UN.
A job that has been agreed upon after a long week of meetings in the Swiss town of Interlaken and in which have summarized all the accumulated knowledge about global warming with a firm, urgent, but above all hopeful appeal: “There are multiple feasible and effective options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change, and they are available now,” the authors write.
He does not make up that the situation is bad –“the climatic time bomb is ticking”, says Guterres-, as shown in the report, the effects of climate change have accelerated and are already being felt throughout the world. But the good news is that there is much we can still do to deal with the worst consequences. “Today’s IPCC report is a practical guide to defuse that climate time bomb,” said the UN chief.
“Specifically, the leaders of developed countries must commit to reaching net zero [de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero] as close as possible to 2040, which is the limit that everyone should try to respect. It is something that can be done. Some countries have already set that goal for 2035. And the leaders of emerging economies must commit to reaching net zero as close as possible to 2050,” the United Nations chief once again specified, who has called on OECD countries to phase out coal use by 2030and to the rest of the countries by 2040″, and that no new licenses are authorized to finance oil and gas exploitation projects. “I am also calling on the executive directors of all oil and gas companies to be part of the solution”, he pointed out.
This document encompasses both the scientific part and that of the impacts and mitigation and adaptation actions, since it closes a work cycle that began in 2015 and summarizes the six large and detailed reports published since 2018, when IPCC scientists already revealed I show how complex it would be to limit the increase in the Earth’s global temperature at the end of the century to 1.5 C compared to what it was at the beginning of the industrial era. We are in 2023 and we are already going for at least 1.1 C of global increase worldwide (that figure was given for 2020). And we must not forget that this increase in temperature is significantly higher in some regions. At the head are the Arctic and the Mediterranean basin where Spain is, where the increase has been between 1.5 and 1.6 C.
In addition to the 1.5 C report, this synthesis work includes the report on the Earth, the oceans and the cryosphere, and the three installments that made up the Sixth Assessment Report.
This increase in temperature, write the authors of the report, has resulted “in more frequent and intense extreme weather events that have caused impacts on nature and people in all regions of the world.” Because the report recognizes the interdependence between climate, ecosystems, biodiversity and human societies, and the close link between climate adaptation and mitigation. climate change, ecosystem health, and human well-being.
Adaptation measures
We will therefore indisputably have a warmer and different world in the coming decades, but how warm it will be at the end of the century will depend on the adaptation measures taken now and in the short term.
As warming increases, so do the associated dangers to human health and ecosystems, including more intense heat waves, torrential rains, and other extreme weather events. The authors stress that “People are dying from the extreme heat in all regions. Climate-induced food insecurity and water scarcity are also expected to increase with warming. “And when those risks are combined with other adverse events, such as pandemics or conflict, they become even more difficult to manage.”
“Taking effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damage to nature and peopleyes, it will also provide benefits”maintains the president of the IPCC, Hoesung Lee, who has underlined how “the synthesis report underlines the urgency to undertake more ambitious actions and shows that, if we act now, we can still ensure a sustainable and livable future for all”.
Human activities, mainly through greenhouse gas emissions, have unequivocally caused global warming, with an increase in global surface temperature recorded in the 2011-2020 decade already 1.1C above average. that existed in the period 1850-1900. The global temperature of the Earth’s surface has increased faster since 1970 than in any other 50-year period.
The report warns that global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise -in 2019 they were higher than at any other time in at least the last two million years-, with historical and uneven contributions across regions and countries, stemming from the unsustainable energy use, land use and land use change, lifestyles, and patterns of consumption and production. “Climate justice is crucial because those who have contributed the least to climate change are being disproportionately affected,” said Aditi Mukherji, one of the 93 authors of this Synthesis Report.
“Almost half of the world’s population lives in regions highly vulnerable to climate change. In the last decade, deaths from floods, droughts and storms were 15 times higher in highly vulnerable areas,” Mukherji said.
Antnio Guterres has said that he hopes that this year the famous agreement on losses and damages for climate change reached at the last Climate Summit held in Egypt will be financed, to make it easier for the most vulnerable countries to face the worst impacts.
Climate change experts recall that changes will be necessary in food production systems, in transportation, in the electrical, industrial sector, in the construction of buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, since in 2019, around 79% of global emissions came from energy, industry, transport and buildings, while the rest is linked to agriculture, forestry and other land uses.
The key, according to the IPCC, is to carry out “climate resilient development”. What does it mean? “It is about integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions that provide broader benefits. For example: access to energy and clean technologies improves health, especially for women and children; low carbon electrification and walking, bicycling and public transport improve air quality, health, employment opportunities and generate equity.
Among the positive data, there is a reduction in the costs of solar and wind energy between 2010 and 2019, of 85% and 55% respectively.
Effectively and equitably conserving 30-50% of the land surface, freshwater resources and oceans will help preserve a healthy planet, but according to the IPCC, urban areas also offer an opportunity on a global scale. for ambitious climate action that contributes to sustainable development. A few days ago and after two decades of work, the UN managed to approve the so-called Global Ocean Treaty, a historic agreement that aims to declare 30% of the world’s oceans as protected areas, compared to 1% currently protected.
“Changes that bring transformation are more likely to succeed if there is trust, if everyone works together to prioritize risk reduction, and if the benefits and burdens are shared fairly,” says Hoesung Lee. Because as they state in the report, “climate change has to be a shared problem if we want to tackle it successfully.”
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