Over 200 nations on Sunday, February 27, gave their approval to a major United Nations climate change report which detailed the accelerating impacts of global warming.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that debates had concluded over the report’s crucial “Summary for Policymakers”, a 40-page overview distilling the thousands of pages of scientific research, which has been reviewed line-by-line and will be made public on February 28.
According to reports, species extinction, ecosystem collapse, mosquito-borne disease, deadly heat, water shortages and reduced crop yields are already measurably worse due to global heating.
Recall that in 2021, the world saw a cascade of unprecedented floods, heatwaves and wildfires across four continents, with all these impacts expected to accelerate in the coming decades even if the carbon pollution driving climate change is rapidly brought to heel.
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The UN report is expected to also underscore the urgent need for “adaptation” — a term that refers to preparations for devastating consequences that can no longer be avoided.
The 2015 Paris deal calls for capping global warming at “well below” 2C, and ideally 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
Recall that in August 2021, another IPCC report on the physical science of human-caused climate change found that global heating is virtually certain to pass 1.5C, probably within a decade.
According to the head of the think tank, Power Shift Africa Mohamed Adow, the IPCC report would be useful for people to understand “the scale of the suffering we will endure” if humanity does not drastically cut greenhouse gas pollution — as well as to adapt to the challenges to come.
“We cannot escape the climate crisis,” he said.
Story was adapted from NDTV.
