The UN’s International Panel on Climate Change published a report on Monday, assessing the latest climate research. And it does not look good. Temperatures are rising faster than before, the sea levels are rising and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent.
The IPCC report can be called the world’s most important climate report, and the latest report was published this Monday. More than ever, the report highlights the seriousness of the climate crisis.
The main conclusions are that climate crisis is unequivocally caused by humans and that global temperatures are rising at unprecedented speed. Global warming could exceed 2 degrees by the middle of this century unless radical changes are implemented.
“The new report clearly states what a catastrophic situation we are in. This should be a wake-up call for all those in power who can make a difference in curbing climate change that is affecting the entire planet – both humans and animals, ” says Hanne Gürtler, director at Save the Orangutan.
Frequent extreme weather events
234 authors have been working for eight years to gather the most important research on climate since the most recent report was published in 2013.
The assessment reports are published in different groups. The now published major report focuses on what changes our planet has already been through and what the world will look like in the future.
Among other things, the report states that we can expect more extreme weather events like the ones we have seen around the world this summer. These weather events will become more frequent and extreme in the future. This applies to storms, heat waves, rainfall, glaciers melting and rising sea levels.
“The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse‑gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk,” António Guterres, the UN Secretary General told The Guardian.
There is still hope
Although the results of the report primarily paint a very dark picture, a glimmer of hope can also be found over the 3 000 pages. We can still make a change – but it requires a massive effort.
“It is necessary to make a change in many different parameters, but we have a special focus on the nature-based solutions. Among other things, it is about protecting the world’s forests, which have a climate stabilizing effect, and avoiding clearing of forests that leads to large amounts of CO2 emissions, ”says Hanne Gürtler.
