(Finance) – “The pace and scale of what has been done in the last five years and current plans are insufficient to address climate change. Over a century of use of fossil fuels, unsustainable energy and land have raised the temperature of 1.1 degrees above pre-industrial levels; extreme weather disasters are more frequent and intense around the world”. This is the alarm raised byIPCC, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the summary for policy makers of the VI Evaluation Report elaborated in Interlaken, Switzerland, last week at the 58th session of the IPCC. After a week of negotiations, which overran the scheduled conclusion by more than two full days and involved round-the-clock deliberations, the delegates approved the text of 37 pages which gives policy makers an insight into the state of knowledge on climate change science.
The VI Assessment Report on Climate Change arrived eight years after the previous one and is made up of three volumes to which almost 1000 scientists from all over the world have contributed, who have provided an overview of the three main themes on climate change: scientific basis, adaptation and mitigation. Themes contained in the three volumes: “Climate change 2021 – The physical-scientific basis”released in August 2021, “Climate change 2022: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability” released in February 2022 and the third on “Mitigation” in April 2022. At the same time, the IPCC published three other special reports on specific topics: on 1.5 degrees, on terrestrial ecosystems and on the oceans and cryosphere.
In 2018, UN climate experts had said that “an unprecedented challenge” was needed to curb global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but five years after the alarm raised by scientists from 194 UN countries, “that challenge has become even more larger due to the continued growth of greenhouse gas emissions”.
“Every increase in temperature quickly turns into an escalation of dangers – add the IPCC scientists –. Intense heat waves, storms and other extreme weather conditions increase the risks to human health and ecosystems. Climate-related food and water insecurity is estimated to grow with increasing heat. And when risks are combined with other adverse events, such as pandemics or wars, they become more difficult to manage.”
“Nearly half of the world’s population – warns the IPCC – lives in areas highly vulnerable to climate change. In the last 10 years the number of deaths from droughts, storms and hurricanes it was 15 times higher and Europe also risks an increase in deaths and people at risk for heat stress. Accelerated action to adapt to climate change is essential in this decade. In the meantime greenhouse gas emissions must be cut immediately across all sectors and halve them by 2030.
“There are enough capital to rapidly reduce greenhouse gases if existing barriers are reduced and the key to doing so is public funds from governments and clear signals to investors. Finance, technology and international cooperation can accelerate climate action. Investors, central banks and financial regulators can do their part, underlines the IPCC. Changes in the food, electricity, transport, industrial, construction and land-use sectors – add the UN climate experts – can cut greenhouse gases and make it easier to have low-carbon lifestyles that improve health and well-being. A better understanding of the consequences of overconsumption can help people make more informed choices.
Italy it is subject to the typical risks of Mediterranean Europe, some – he says Piero Lionello, first author on Europe and the Mediterranean of the 6th Assessment Report of the IPCC 2022: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability – due to the peculiarities of climate change, others to the particular vulnerability of ecosystems and productive sectors: from the decrease in precipitation (with consequences on the availability of water resources) to the vulnerability of the coasts, to the economic importance of the tourism sector to the vulnerability of terrestrial and marine ecosystems , also threatened by overexploitation and pollution.
“The climate bomb marks the seconds. But today’s IPCC report – comments the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres – is a practical guide to defusing the climate time bomb. As the report shows, the 1.5 degree limit is achievable. But it will take a quantum leap in climate action.”