The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) underscores the need to halt carbon emissions and adapt to “inevitable risks”, according to one of its lead authors.
Professor Richards Bates MBEresearchers from the Met Office and the University of Exeter said the Working Group 2 report demonstrated “substantial evidence” that humans were causing damaging climate change on a global scale.
The report, approved by the governments of the 195 IPCC member countries, said climate change poses a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet, and said taking action now can secure our future. It also said the people and ecosystems who were least able to cope were hardest hit.
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Professor Bates said: “This report shows that climate change is already having widespread impacts, with further impacts brewing even as emissions fall as rapidly as the most ambitious scenarios suggest.
“We also concluded that many future climate-related risks are more severe than previous IPCC assessments.
“We urgently need to adapt to these changes to manage these inevitable risks and urgently stop our carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels and deforestation to stop these risks from increasing further.”
IPCC Chairman Hoesung Lee said: “This report is a dire warning of the consequences of inaction.
“This shows that climate change poses a serious and growing threat to our well-being and healthy planet. Our actions today will shape how people adapt and how nature responds to increasing climate risks.”
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Drawing on various studies from the University of Exeter, the report says the world will face inevitable multiple climate hazards over the next two decades, with global warming expected to be 1.5°C (2.7°F) higher than pre-industrial levels.
Even temporarily exceeding this level of warming would lead to additional severe effects, some of which would be irreversible.
Social risks will increase, including infrastructure and low-lying coastal settlements.
The increase in heatwaves, droughts and floods has surpassed tolerance thresholds for plants and animals, leading to massive die-offs of species such as trees and corals.
These extreme weather events occur simultaneously, creating cascading effects that are increasingly difficult to manage.
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However, the report does suggest that many risks can be reduced through adaptation as long as further global warming is limited to low levels.
To avoid the increasing loss of life, biodiversity and infrastructure, ambitious and accelerated action is needed to adapt to climate change while rapidly and substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The new report is the second part (Working Group II) of its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which aims to assess the risks posed by climate change.
The third part (Working Group 3, to be released in April) focuses on mitigation – the measures needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit further climate change.
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Brendan Montague is the editor ecologist. This article is based on a press release from the University of Exeter.
