COPENHAGEN
The Fifth Assessment Report of Climate Change, which was prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or the IPCC, and was released in Copenhagen on Sunday, after negotiations between the world’s governments came to an end.
The report strongly stressed that climate change continues to threaten “irreversible and dangerous impacts, but options exist to limit its effects.”
“Human influence on the climate system is clear and growing, with impacts observed on all continents. If left unchecked, climate change will increase the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems. However, options are available to adapt to climate change and implementing stringent mitigations activities can ensure that the impacts of climate change remain within a manageable range, creating a brighter and more sustainable future,” according to the report.
Speaking at the press release, Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said that “we have the means to limit climate change.”
“The solutions are many and allow for continued economic and human development. All we need is the will to change, which we trust will be motivated by knowledge and an understanding of the science of climate change,” he added.
The so-called Synthesis Report is the first report since 2007 to bring the world together to tackle climate change.
The report confirms that climate change is being registered around the world and warming of the climate system is unconditional.
“With this latest report, science has spoken yet again and with much more clarity. Time is not on our side…leaders must act,” the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
"There is a myth that climate change action will cost heavily. But I am telling you inaction will cost much much more," he added.
Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group Thomas Stocker said, “Our assessment finds that the atmosphere and oceans have warmed, the amount of snow and ice has diminished, sea level has risen and the concentration of carbon dioxide has increased to a level unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years.”
World leaders descended on New York on September 23 for a United Nations climate summit that will shape this year’s Paris conference, billed by some as the most important climate change meeting since Kyoto in 1997.
The meeting at the UN’s headquarters on the East River saw 125 heads of state and government discuss plans to combat global climate change, which will in turn form a treaty to limit the rise in global warming when they meet again in the French capital in December this year.
“Changes in many extreme weather and climate events have been observed since about 1950. Some of these changes have been linked to human influences, including a decrease in cold temperature extremes, an increase in warm temperature extremes, an increase in extreme high sea levels and an increase in the number of heavy precipitation events in a number of regions,” the report stressed.
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