by Stephanie Ho Lem, CHCA Director – Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability
On March 20, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), a UN agency, released their 6th Climate Change Assessment report, the result of research conducted over the past five years. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at a press conference, stated “humanity is on thin ice and that ice is melting fast…the climate time bomb is ticking.” The report suggests things are getting worse, but it makes one thing clear: the actions we take today will significantly impact our planet in the coming years.
196 countries adopted the Paris Agreement in December 2015. It established that the world must limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees C in this century and preferably 1.5 degrees C. The Earth has already warmed to 1.1 degrees C above 1850-1900 in 2011-2020 and is likely to cross 1.5 degrees C in the 2030s.
All hope is not lost yet.
Governments would have to up their commitments by 2030 and attain net zero by 2050 to keep warming around 1.5 degrees C as agreed to in the Paris Agreement.
Why 1.5 degrees? It is the limit at which many scientists believe humans can survive without causing the physical environment to be destroyed. It is the ‘target’ set by the IPCC as being ‘relatively safe’.
Overshooting 1.5 degrees C appears inevitable. We will continue to see more intense and frequent extreme weather, including blistering heat waves, droughts, powerful hurricanes, and heavier rainfall. Moving forward, without major changes this decade, they will get exponentially worse.
What should be made clear is that human beings have caused the Earth’s surface temperature to rise, through emitting greenhouse gases, not natural processes.
Sources: IPCC – Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report.
Please note that the content provided is for informational purposes.
Click here to the Crescent Heights Community News home page for the latest Crescent Heights community updates.
