Hoesung Lee, chairman of the UN climate experts, spoke ahead of the start of the approval process for a new report on the impacts of global warming.
The stakes in the fight against climate change “have never been higher”, insisted Monday Hoesung Lee, president of the UN climate experts, before the start of the process of approval of a new report on the impacts of global warming. The “needs” for this report on the impacts of global warming and how to prepare for it “have never been greater, because the stakes have never been higher”, he said during a brief online session opening two weeks of closed-door negotiations.
“We know (…) that the growth of climate impacts far exceeds our efforts to adapt to them,” added the boss of the UN-Environment Inger Andersen. “We know the world is already aware of the scientific evidence that the IPCC has presented year after year, decade after decade, but acknowledging the evidence is only the first step.” “Countries, cities, companies, investors and individual players, consumers must turn this first step into a sprint if we do not want to exceed +1.5°C”, compared to the pre-industrial era, a- she added, considering this report as “capital in helping global decision-makers design responses to climate impacts”.
As the Beijing Winter Olympics are underway, World Weather Organization boss Petteri Taalas preferred another sporting metaphor. “We have very successful athletes, and if you boost them, they perform even better. That’s what we’ve done to the atmosphere. We’ve boosted it with fossil fuels,” he said. , in reference to emissions related to the use of fossil fuels, major responsible for the reinforcement of the greenhouse effect and global warming.
+1.1°C compared to the pre-industrial era
After more than a century and a half of economic development based on these sources of energy – coal, oil or even gas – the world has gained around +1.1°C compared to the pre-industrial era, already multiplying heat waves , droughts, storms or devastating floods. In the first part of its report published last August, the IPCC estimated that the mercury would reach around 2030, ten years earlier than expected, the threshold of +1.5°C, the most ambitious objective of the agreement. from Paris.
Before a third opus in April on solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the second report whose negotiations began on Monday looks at the impacts of global warming, and how to prepare for it (“adaptation” ). This new assessment will be unveiled on February 28, after a two-week virtual meeting of the 195 Member States who will sift through, line by line, word by word, the “summary for policymakers”, a politically sensitive digest of thousands of pages of the full scientific report.
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