UN’s “survival guide” study issues a grave climate warning

• The UN’s climate advisory panel has released a 36-page “summary for policymakers”.
• The world is on track to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the early 2030s.
• Hoesung Lee, the IPCC’s head, said that strong political will is needed to resolve the issues once and for all.

Devastating climate impacts are occurring faster than expected as the world approaches the 1.5 degree Celsius warming limit in just over a decade, according to the UN.

Temperatures in recent years have fueled destructive storms and flooding, crop-wilting heatwaves, and deadly droughts.

However, future generations will look back on the hottest years of the 2020s as relatively cool, even if planet-warming fossil fuel emissions drop quickly, according to a key report from the UN’s climate advisory panel.

The 36-page “summary for policymakers,” a synthesis of six major reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2018, is a harsh reminder that, while humanity has the tools to prevent climate catastrophe, it is still failing to use them.

The world is currently on track to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the early 2030s, which will exacerbate the severity of impacts in the near future.

But, as the IPCC’s head told AFP, it’s not too late to turn things around.

“We have know-how, technology, tools, financial resources—everything needed to overcome the climate problems we have known about for so long,” Hoesung Lee said in a video interview.

“What’s lacking at this point is a strong political will to resolve this issues once and for all.”

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