'Final warning' over devastating climate impacts: UN report calls for urgent action
Earth
A crucial UN report has warned that the world will see its first full year with temperatures rising by 1.5 degree Celcius above pre-industrial levels in early 2030s. Severe impacts on climate will be seen more quickly at lower levels of global warming than previously expected, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said.
IPCC released the final part of its mammoth sixth assessment report on Monday. The IPCC consists of the world's leading climate scientists, who have issued a "final warning" on the deteriorating climate crisis. The IPCC, an intergovernmental body of the UN charged with advancing scientific knowledge about man-made climate change, has prepared detailed assessment reports about climate change amid a continuous rise in greenhouse gas emissions which have started to cause visible and irrevocable damage to the planet earth.
The report talks about causes, potential impacts and response options to tackle global warming and noted that only swift and drastic action can avert the situation.
IPCC said there is also a 50-50 chance that "by 2030, global surface temperature in any individual year could exceed 1.5C" in the a report synthesising its major findings over the last six years.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: "This report is a clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe. Our world needs climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once."
A call to the wealthy countries
Guterres also called on wealthy countries to move up their goals of achieving carbon neutrality as close as possible to 2040, mostly from 2050 now, in order to "defuse the climate time bomb." The UN chief said that "humanity is on thin ice -- and that ice is melting fast".
Guterres described the sixth "synthesis report" from IPCCas "a survival guide for humanity".
In a video message coinciding with the latest report on climate change, Guterres said all parties must "hit the fast forward button" on net zero deadlines. He also urged emerging economies to reach the goal as close as possible to 2050.
He said rich countries should commit to achieving carbon neutrality as close as possible to 2040 and "aim to respect" the limit.
The UN report said the last eight years' record-breaking temperatures will figure among the coolest within three or four decades as global temperatures climb, even if planet-warming emissions drop quickly.
Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and lead author of the UN's climate advisory panel said: "The warmest years we have experienced to date will be among the coolest within a generation."
Guterres said: "This is the moment for all G20 members to come together in a joint effort, pooling their resources and scientific capacities as well as their proven and affordable technologies through the public and private sectors to make carbon neutrality a reality by 2050."
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