Risk of fatal outcome if precautions are not taken

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The climate can still be salvaged. That’s what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wrote in its new status report released Monday. However, according to the report, the speed and scope of the measures taken so far are not enough to reduce the warming below 2 degrees.

In the synthesis report of the IPCC’s sixth assessment report, scientists write that with climate policies currently in place, warming of between 2.2 and 3.5 degrees Celsius can be expected by the end of the century. The 1.5 degree threshold will be reached before 2035.

“We walk when we have to run”

“Climate measures must be implemented with a much higher priority,” said Hoesung Lee (77), Chairman of the Interlaken Council, in front of the media at the opening of the conference at Interlaken BE on Monday. “We walk when we have to run.”

Lee said the new report is also “a message of hope.” The measures are all there, they just need to be implemented. But the window of time is closing fast to ensure a sustainable future worth living for all, according to the report. Therefore, greenhouse gas emissions should be halved by 2050. “The choices we make in the next few years will affect our future for the next hundred or even thousands of years,” Lee said.

The IPCC Synthesis Report is one of the pillars of the upcoming climate negotiations. The new document summarizes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports produced since 2018. 93 scientists from around the world, five from Switzerland, worked on the synthesis report.

According to the report, several options already exist today to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, successful implementation of climate measures requires appropriate funding, an inclusive political system and coordination in many policy areas.

Switzerland is struggling

This coordination is also a major challenge in Switzerland: many measures in the Swiss strategy 2020-2025 for adaptation to climate change are not cross-sectoral, as the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) reports.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, measures to change demand have great potential. When it comes to food, by 2050, 44 percent less greenhouse gases could be emitted without changing demand, 66 percent less in buildings, 73 percent in electricity, 67 percent in land transport and 29 percent in industry. Measures to expand solar and wind power and slow the loss of natural ecosystems are also proving particularly beneficial.

However, global warming is progressing faster than previously thought. “Switzerland is already severely affected by climate change,” said IPCC author Erich Fischer of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, in the SCNAT statement. “In recent years we have had a foretaste of extreme events that will become even more serious and frequent in the future. These include extremely hot, dry summers, heavy rainfall and lack of snow.”

Increased risk of extreme events

In the current report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the risks of extreme events are significantly higher than in the last report nine years ago. In addition, they already occur at lower temperatures. Climate-related food and water insecurity is expected to increase as warming increases.

The Synthesis report also shows that young people are particularly vulnerable to the climate crisis. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, children born today will experience extreme weather events much more often in their lifetimes than the generation of their parents and grandparents.

“Every tenth degree of warming we can prevent significantly reduces the risk of adverse climate impacts, especially for young people who will experience these changes. Conversely, with each additional warming, the risk of extreme events or sudden major global changes of previously unknown magnitude increases,” said Sonia Seneviratne, IPCC coordinator at ETH Zurich.

However, according to the report, the most devastating effects of climate change are seen in countries where poverty prevails, government systems are unstable, people are marginalized, power structures are unequal, and access to drinking water and health services is limited.

Poor countries depend on support from industrialized countries to finance adaptation measures. “Our collective failure is leading us towards 1.5 degrees of warming,” said Inger Andersen, director of the United Nations Environment Programme, at the media conference. “Therefore, we must help particularly vulnerable people.” (SDA/father)

Source : Blick