Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Inger Andersen said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and UNEP have both shown that a rapid shift from fossil fuels to renewables is possible. That restoring ecosystems to store carbon and buffer climate impacts is possible. That investing in nature-based solutions in cities and productive landscapes is possible, and profitable. That action on climate is also action on nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste – the other two prongs of the triple planetary crisis.
Temperature records that were not meant to be broken have fallen, one after the other, day by day. The baking shroud of the climate emergency is frazzling people, cities and ecosystems. Powerful storms, lent greater ferocity by the changing climate, are destroying homes and livelihoods across the world. Ocean ecosystems are warming, threatening mass species die off. Agricultural systems are facing massive disruption, with worrying impacts for food security in a world already blighted by hunger, she added in her speech at the 59th Session of the IPCC.
The IPCC sounded the alarm about these coming impacts in every assessment cycle about anthropogenic climate change – including in the most intense and productive sixth cycle. The IPCC has let policymakers and negotiators know in no uncertain terms that the chances of staying below a 1.5-2 degrees global temperature rise are fading fast. That meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement would require greenhouse gas emissions to be halved by 2030 and net zero emission to be reached by 2050. That they have a responsibility to ensure vulnerable nations have the tools, financing and technology to adapt to the impacts that cannot be avoided, she said.
The IPCC has influenced public discourse and policy. This august body has helped to spark a global movement that is exerting ever-more pressure on those most-responsible for the climate emergency. And the IPCC has a long and illustrious history of highlighting solutions. Solutions that are feasible, affordable and available now, she added.
“Now, as you elect new bureau members and kick-start the seventh cycle, I ask you keep excelling. Produce your best assessments based on science. Tell policymakers, businesses and investors what they can do. Keep sounding the alarm, but also sound a message of hope. A message that, yes, we are in trouble, but we can still change. That we must change. Starting today,” she concluded.
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