(Reuters) – Climate change is underway and humanity is far from ready, the United Nations Climate Panel (IPCC) warned in a new report released on Monday, calling for drastic action on a large scale. while nearly half of the world’s population is already vulnerable to increasingly dangerous climate impacts.
Between a third and a half of the plant needs to be conserved and protected to guarantee future supplies of food and fresh water, the IPCC report says, adding that coastal cities need plans to protect people from storms and rising waters.
“Adaptation saves lives,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres when the report was released. “As climate impacts worsen, and they will continue to worsen, scaling up investments will be essential for survival.”
“Any delay means death,” he warned.
This 3,675-page report is the latest in a series published by the IPCC detailing the scientific consensus on climate change. It focuses on how nature and societies are affected and what they can do to adapt.
Despite the impact of climate change much faster than scientists predicted, countries are failing to control their carbon emissions, which continue to increase.
“Unchecked carbon pollution is forcing the world’s most vulnerable on a forced march towards destruction,” Antonio Guterres said in a video address on Monday. “The facts are undeniable. This leadership resignation is criminal.”
The United States’ special envoy for the climate, John Kerry, regretted that few measures had been put in place to adapt to climate change and considered that the IPCC report offered an “action plan”.
“Denial and delay are not strategies, they are a recipe for disaster,” he added in a statement.
For his part, the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned of the threat posed by climate change to the stability of the world.
“We know the significant risks that climate change poses to our health and safety, and we know that climate plays a critical role in the trajectory of peace and prosperity around the world,” he said. .
In France, the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, highlighted on Twitter the green pact of the European Union intended to adapt the policies of the member countries in terms of climate, energy, transport and taxation.
This Green Deal aims to achieve the EU’s goal of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
For its part, the NGO Greenpeace deplored that the climate occupies less than 3% of the debates during the electoral campaign for the presidential election in France and launched an appeal on Twitter for “more climate in the presidential election” .
ADAPTATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
While governments must drastically reduce emissions to avoid uncontrolled global warming, they can also limit suffering by adapting to conditions in a warmer world, despite the high costs this represents, the IPCC report says.
Cities could invest in cooling zones to cope with heat waves and in new infrastructure for coastal communities.
The publication of the report three months after world leaders met at a climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, highlights the urgency of efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above global temperatures. of the pre-industrial era.
Exceeding this threshold will cause irreversible damage to the planet, according to the IPCC, and each increase in warming will cause more suffering.
After having already warmed by 1.1 degrees, the planet should reach the threshold of 1.5 degrees within two decades.
According to the report, societies will not be able to adapt to global warming if they are not socially inclusive in the fight against this phenomenon. Solutions must include indigenous, precarious populations and minorities.
Without inclusive economic development in Africa, for example, climate change will push 40 million more people into extreme poverty by 2030.
But time is running out to bring about the necessary transformations at the level of society, warn the authors of the report. Decisions made over the next decade will determine the future climate trajectory.
“There is a brief and rapidly closing window to ensure a livable future for the planet,” said Hans-Otto Portner, co-chair of the IPCC working group behind the report. “We must rise to this challenge”.
(French version Lou Phily, said by Blandine Hnault)
by Jake Spring, Gloria Dickie and Andrea Januta