Cut Emissions To Save Lives and Catastrophe, Urgently Warns New UN Climate Report

What’s the story?

• A new climate report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the planet is on track for catastrophic warming and urges global leaders to cut emissions to save lives worldwide immediately. 
• Top climate scientists and delegates from nearly 200 countries drafted and reviewed the report, all of whom agree that the Earth is in a dire situation. The authors wrote the analysis to provide politicians with guidelines for the necessary action needed to combat uninhabitable conditions for people worldwide. 

Five things the newest UN climate report tells us

From our overshooting, there is little we can do to stop 1.5 C of warming

• The IPCC emphasized that there is a very slim chance of halting the 1.5 C degrees of warming, which governments had previously pledged to work to avoid. As the world has already warmed by 1.1 C degrees, experts deemed it highly likely that we will reach the 1.5 tipping point in the 2030s.
• Climate scientists now say that the best approach is to quickly work towards reversing the overshoot of carbon emissions. While this will be expensive and require new technology, it's a crucial step to prevent crossing more irreversible thresholds. 

There could be no future in coal, oil, and gas

• The report indicates that its essential to stop burning fossil fuels immediately. Dr. Friederike Otto, one of the authors of the report, said: 

“The message in terms of urgency, I think, is stop burning fossil fuels as fast as humanly possible. It is not because we are lacking some important piece of technology or some important knowledge. It is because so far, the sense of urgency has been lacking in the places where the important decisions are made.”

• The authors also highlighted how renewable forms of energy are affordable, and some are even cheaper than sticking to fossil fuels. 

Individual action has more power than we think

• The IPCC’s report expressed the importance of individual action on top of government policy. A public shift toward plant-based diets, avoiding flights, utilizing public transportation, and pushing for more walkable/bikeable cities could significantly affect the big picture. 
• The analysis encourages governments to reform their transportation and energy sectors so more eco-friendly lifestyles can become available to the public. Greenpeace’s Kaisa Kosonen, an observer at the IPCC, said: 

“We could cut 40 to 70% of projected 2050 emissions with end-use measures.” 

Our actions will be completely irreversible 

• The report warned that our actions today would reverberate in the environment for years. If the planet warms even more, it will have effects that are entirely irreversible and will be felt for millennia. To stop these consequences, world leaders need to improve their climate commitments before 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the "climate time bomb is ticking," and if action isn't taken, the environment will be unsustainable for future lives.  

Now, more than ever, its time to focus on political action 

• While the authors didn't point to a “right” solution, they did warn that there is no time or reason to delay action. The report laid out various steps for policymakers dedicated to addressing climate change, including straightforward, immediate acts and larger, extensive solutions. 
• If adopted, the report’s menu of solutions to combat the crisis could save millions of lives. Researchers hope that the extensive array of actions reignites hope in politicians and the public, and that the cheat sheet for lawmakers will make upcoming climate negotiations more successful and worthwhile.  

Are you tired of waiting for your leaders to start taking action to combat climate change? Tell your reps to act NOW.  

-Jamie Epstein

(Photo credit: iStock/D. Talukdar)