The IPCC report offers a bleak view of the planet’s future if global warming is not contained.
In the document, the experts conclude that humans are “indisputably” responsible for climate change and warn that there is no other option but to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“We need to reverse this trend,” said Diane Blackline, AOSIS chief climate negotiator and Antigua and Barbuda ambassador to the United Nations, according to a statement released last night on Monday. August 9.
“The truth is that if we limit warming to 1.5°C, we risk a half-meter rise in sea level. But if we prevent the temperature rise from reaching 2°C, we can prevent a three-meter sea level rise in the sea in the long run. Our future At stake here.”
The Alliance of Small Island States includes 39 countries from around the world, including Cuba, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, the Maldives, and East Timor. These countries insist on the need for drastic measures to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C, as stipulated in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
According to the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world will reach this level in 2030, ten years earlier than predicted by the calculations made in 2018.
And even if it manages to limit warming to +1.5°C, heat waves, floods and other extreme events will see an “unprecedented” increase in both their magnitude, frequency, location and time of year, the IPCC warns.
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has declared that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and deforestation are “choking” the planet.
“There is no time for waiting and no place for excuses,” Guterres stressed.
Approved last Friday (6) by 195 countries, it is the first IPCC assessment report in seven years that analyzes five emissions scenarios, from the most optimistic to the most pessimistic.
By all reports, the temperature of the planet will reach a limit of + 1.5 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era around 2030. Before 2050, this limit will be exceeded, up to +2 ° C, if emissions are not significantly reduced.
This may represent the failure of the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to below +2°C, or +1.5°C if possible.
Among these bleak forecasts, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change brings a glimmer of hope.
In the best case scenario, warming could return to the +1.5°C limit if emissions are reduced significantly and more carbon dioxide is absorbed than emissions.
However, the IPCC states that technologies that make it possible to recover atmospheric carbon dioxide on a large scale are still being studied.
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