– It is an extremely clear message: we must act this decade. What we do in the next seven years has consequences for the next thousand years. That’s what Bjørn Samset says to news. He is a climate researcher at Cicero and has been a lead author in some of the previous reports to the UN climate panel. This latest report is considered the most important scientific basis for the design of international climate policy. Last time, the synthesis report led to the Paris Agreement. Here you will find everything you need to know about the UN climate panel’s sixth synthesis report: The IPCC proposes a “sandwich list” of measures to reverse the course of climate change. Consequences of climate change such as fire, flood, drought, disease and climate refugees are already here. But we don’t have enough time: only seven years to limit warming to the 1.5 degree target. The report is a summary of three previous partial reports, each with a separate focus. The message in the report is clear, and you may have heard it before: it is urgent. Guterres: Humanity is on thin ice UN Secretary-General António Guterres says that the report is a “survival guide” for humanity. – In short: The world needs climate action on all fronts. Everything, at once, says Guterres. – Rich countries must try to become climate neutral as close to 2040 as possible, instead of waiting until 2050 as we agreed, says Guterres. Photo: Skjermdump / IPCC Humanity is on thin ice, and that ice is melting fast, he says and asks rich countries to speed up the target of zero emissions towards 2040. – It starts with them immediately having to press the “fast forward” button for the zero emission targets , says Guterres. The report is a clear call to massively speed up climate action from every country and every sector at all times, he emphasises. Leader of the IPCC, Hoesung Lee, says the panel now comes with a warning, but also hope. Photo: Screen dump / IPCC – We must stop all oil and gas exploration and new projects in order to reach the goals of net zero emissions, says Guterres. Hoesung Lee, leader of the IPCC says that the report gives us a warning, but that it also gives us hope. – We go when we should ask, says Lee. The panel has looked at climate policy from 2020. With this policy, we are moving towards more than 3 degrees of warming by 2100. If warming is to be limited to 1.5 or 2 degrees, emissions must fall very quickly. Graphics: UN climate panel/news – Pace and ambitions must be increased worldwide. Time is emissions, sums up Ellen Hambro, Director of the Norwegian Environment Agency. – Now all elections count, she says, and points to the many measures the report says are needed. Bjørn Samset, astrophysicist and climate scientist in Cicero. The Climate Panel refers to a number of measures that we can take to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. IPCC leader Hoesung Lee says that the report also emphasizes that effective and global climate action can lead. – To a more sustainable, steadfast and just world. The report points to several feasible and effective opportunities to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. – We can no longer pick and choose different measures. We have to do pretty much everything, says environment director Hambro. Among other things, it is possible to halve global emissions by 2030 with measures that cost less than USD 100 per tonne of CO2 equivalents. Ani Dasgupta, head of the World Resources Institute (WRI), says that thanks to the IPCC, the world’s politicians know what must now be done. – Despite their gloomy warnings, the IPCC gives reasons for hope. The report shows a narrow path to a habitable future if we quickly change course, says Dasgupta. He also points out that it is not enough to limit CO2 emissions. The report says that there is a need for ways to extract CO₂ from the atmosphere, i.e. so-called carbon capture and storage (CCS). A carbon capture and storage facility in Alberta, Canada. Photo: TODD KOROL / Reuters – New technologies such as extracting CO₂ directly are not a windfall or a distraction, but necessary tools to avoid a climate catastrophe, says Dasgupta. Bjørn Samset believes that a good example of possible measures is an adaptation of the system for food production: – We cannot continue to have the kind of development and growth in the food system that we have had. It takes up too many resources. – It’s not about climate scientists disliking beef, it’s just pure numbers. It costs so much globally to produce meat, that it goes against the much more important climate and nature goals, says Samset. A firefighting plane drops flame retardants over Laguna Beach, California on February 10. The western United States has gone through three years of drought and record-breaking wildfires. Scientists say that climate change is an important reason for the fires. People fleeing the drought in Somalia. The WHO says that 43,000 people have died in the drought in the last year and a half. Scientists say that climate change has contributed to making the drought worse. Maupiti in French Polynesia is threatened by climate change and the corals are bleaching. In 2021 and 2022, Siberia experienced the worst forest fires on record. Photo: DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP Heat map from Nasa on 30 June 2021. On that day, Lytton in Canada set a heat record of 49.6 degrees. It was almost 5 degrees warmer than the previous record, of 45 degrees from 1937. Scientists say that climate change makes such heat waves more likely. Smoke from forest fires in the Mediterranean on August 1, 2021. In the last two years, the countries around the Mediterranean have experienced record drought and large forest fires .Poyang Lake is China’s largest lake. In August 2022, drought had led to 75 percent of the surface being dried out and the water flowing in channels. In 2010, the glacier below the Swiss Mont Mine went down to the stone in the picture. In 2022, the glacier is not even visible in the same place. Climate change has led to glaciers worldwide shrinking and disappearing. Africa’s highest mountain Kilimanjaro (5895 metres) is known for its snow-covered peak. Climate change is causing the snow to melt away. The picture from 23 September 2021 shows how little snow is left. Photo: Thomas Pesquet / ESA/NASA The world is already seeing the consequences of man-made climate change. It is more often extreme weather such as forest fires, droughts and floods. The sea level has risen by 20 centimeters. Summers in Europe are characterized by historically high temperatures. Here in Norway, there will be fewer snow and winter days, and instead we will get more rain and floods. And within a short time, the risk of climate hazards will increase worldwide, the report concludes. Around the world, climate change has resulted in increased mortality and health problems due to heat. Infectious diseases and mental health challenges have increased as a result. More people are forced to flee. Today, almost half of the world’s population lives in a context that makes them very vulnerable to climate change. The hole in the Marmolada Glacier in the Dolomites after the July 3, 2022 collapse in which seven people died. The glacier collapsed during an unusual heat wave. Unesco warns that a third of the world’s glaciers will disappear by 2050 due to climate change. Photo: PIERRE TEYSSOT / AFP But it is not only people who are at risk. Ecosystems on land and in the sea are also one of the victims of man-made climate change. Heat waves on land and in the sea have caused mass death and wiped out species locally. In some ecosystems, the consequences are becoming irreversible. There are several places, such as the Arctic and coral reefs, where warming of more than 1.5 degrees cannot be tolerated. A group of women tries to cool down at the Colosseum during a heat wave in Rome in August 2021. Photo: ALBERTO PIZZOLI / AFP In the Paris Agreement from 2015, the countries of the world agreed to limit warming to well below 2 degrees, preferably down to 1.5. We have until 2030 to cut emissions by between 30 and 55 per cent if we are to achieve these targets. Currently, the warming is 1.09 degrees. If we are to look at the CO2 emissions that will lead to 1.5 degrees of warming as a cake with 20 pieces, we have eaten, or released 17 pieces of the cake already. With today’s policy, we are heading for more than 3 degrees of warming. We also do not share this emissions pie in a fair way. Of the pieces that have already been eaten, rich industrialized countries have provided themselves with the most. North America and Europe have eaten a total of seven so far, while Africa has only provided one. Director of the Norwegian Environment Agency, Ellen Hambro. Photo: Photographer John Petter Reinertsen / Klif – Before long, the whole cake will be gone. Then we have to plan for a drastic diet where we suck CO₂ out of the atmosphere again, says environment director Ellen Hambro. The report also shows that there is an extensive gap between the ambitions for emission cuts and the actual plans for cuts. Monday 20 March at 14, the UN climate panel presents its latest synthesis report. Monday’s report is a synthesis – a summary – of the three interim reports that came in 2021 and 2022. Monday’s report is the last in this round of climate reports from the UN. The next major report is not expected until 2027/2028 at the earliest.
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– Now all elections count – news – Klima
