The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has announced the commencement of a two-week meeting to consider a report that assesses the impact of the world’s changing climate and how humans might adapt.
The meeting which is being held virtually will provide an opportunity for hundreds of scientists to lay out the latest evidence on how past and future changes to the Earth’s climate system are affecting the planet.
Recall that In August, the IPCC approved the first contribution of Working Group I, which dealt with the physical science basis of climate change.
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The second part, which is currently under review, highlights the role of social justice and diverse forms of knowledge, such as indigenous and local knowledge, might play to strengthen climate change action and reduce the risks.
Chairman of the IPCC, Hoesung Lee, said the report will focus on solutions and productive areas for action.
“It will be more strongly integrated, the natural, social and economic sciences,” he said. “And it will provide policymakers with sound data and knowledge to help them shape policies and make decisions”.
Speaking further, he said that the need for the Working Group II report had never been greater because the stakes had never been higher.
The IPCC which is backed by the United Nations was established in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments regarding climate change. The panel previously issued five assessment reports that spotlighted climate change as an issue of growing global importance.
Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas, had warned that weather-related disasters have been increasing dramatically over the past two decades.
He said vulnerable areas in tropical latitudes, especially in Africa, Southern Asia and the Pacific are suffering the worst impacts of climate-driven disasters, adding that he often uses a sports analogy to communicate the seriousness of climate change to humanity.
“We have now Winter Olympics going on in China,” he said. “We have high-performing athletes. And if you give them doping, then they perform even more expertly. So, that is what we have done with the atmosphere. We have been doping the atmosphere”.
The Paris Agreement on climate change calls for limiting human-induced global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius, above pre-industrial levels. The IPCC warns that the mark will be exceeded this century unless drastic action is taken.
Story was adapted from VOA.
