It’s ‘now or never’ to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees: Report

NEW DELHI: A new report was released by the United Nations on climate change on Monday, April 4. The report noted that the world is on a ‘fast track’ and harmful carbon emissions recorded in the period of 2010-2019 have never been higher in human history.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, prepared by hundreds of leading scientists noted that the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by human activity have increased since 2010, across all major sectors globally. It established that increasing share of emissions can be attributed to towns and cities across the world. Due to rising global activities in industry, energy supply, transport, agriculture and buildings, rate of emissions reductions have witnessed a downward slope.

António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, referred to the report as ‘a litany of broken climate promises’ as it reveals a huge gap between climate pledges and reality.

Striking a positive note, the report insisted that it is still possible to halve the GHG emissions by 2030 if governments were to ramp up their actions to curb the emissions. To limit global warming to around 1.5 degree Celsius, it said that GHG emissions would have to peak before 2025 at the latest and be reduced by 43 per cent by 2030. It added that even if this was to be achieved, it is almost inevitable that the world will temporarily exceed this temperature threshold, however, the world could return to below it by the end of the century.

Jim Skea, Co-Chair, IPCC Working Group III, said that it’s now or never for the world. He said that it will be impossible to limit the global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius without putting in immediate and deep emission reductions across all the sectors. The report suggested that these reductions can be achieved through lower energy consumption (such as creating compact, walkable cities), electrification of transport in combination with low-emission energy sources, and enhanced carbon uptake and storage using nature.

Priyadarshi Shukla, Co-Chair, IPCC Working Group III, said that only the right policies, infrastructure, and technology can enable changes in our lifestyles and behaviour, which in turn can result in a 40 to 70 per cent reduction in GHG emissions by 2050. Guterres insisted that unless the governments everywhere reassess their energy policies, the world will be uninhabitable because it is already perilously close to tipping points that could lead to cascading and irreversible climate effects.