"The decision we make now can secure a lieable future." Hoesung Lee, IPCC Chairman
(The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.)
Substantial reductions in the use of fossil fuels are needed to tackle the climate crisis, a new UN report has warned.
Meeting goals agreed by countries to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees or below 2 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst impacts of climate change requires rapid, deep and immediate greenhouse gas emissions cuts in all areas, it says.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) science body has released the third part of its sixth assessment report, spelling out how to cut emissions by switching to increasingly cheap renewables and fuels such as hydrogen, as well as energy efficiency, capturing carbon and planting trees. Check out https://www.ipcc.ch/
Report co-chair Jim Skea said: “It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.”
George Lee reports;
Humanity has less than three years to halt the rise of planet-warming carbon emissions and less than a decade to slash them almost in half, the UN said in a landmark report on stopping global warming and ensuring a "liveable future".
That daunting task is still - and only just - possible, but current policies are leading the planet towards catastrophic temperature rises, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made clear.
The 2,800-page report - by far the most comprehensive assessment of how to halt global heating - documents "a litany of broken climate promises", said UN chief Antonio Guterres in a blistering judgement of governments and industry.
"Some government and business leaders are saying one thing but doing another. Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic," Mr Guterres said in a video message released at the same time as the UN report.
In their third major review in eight months of the latest scientific evidence, the IPCC pointed out that greenhouse gas emissions have risen 12% since 2010 and by 54% since 1990 and are now higher than at any point in human history.
It said that if global CO2 emissions continue at current rates, the remaining carbon budget for keeping warming to 1.5C will likely be exhausted within eight years (by 2030) and the carbon budget for limiting warming to 2% would be exhausted within 25 years.
Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, the IPCC said that limiting global warming to 1.5°C is beyond reach.
Nations should stop burning coal completely and slash oil and gas use by 60% and 70% respectively to keep within the Paris goals, the IPCC said.
It warned that current fossil fuel infrastructure, if used to the end of its expected lifetime without capturing carbon emissions, would make it impossible to limit global warming to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, the IPCC said.