Page 4 - AsiaElec Week 32 2021

AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec
Last chance to cut emissions and save the climate: UN report
ASIA
THE UN has said in its strongest statement yet that human influence is unequivocally responsi- ble for creating climate change, with only imme- diate, rapid and large-scale reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions able to limit global warming to 1.5°C this century.
Scientists at the UN International Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC), said in their latest report that the rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean and biosphere that had occurred were unprecedented over a period of many thousands of years, and that the world was is now seeing the results of human-induced climate change.
Efforts to date to mitigate climate change or reduce emissions of carbon dioxide have been too little and too late. The UN said that there was now stronger and stronger evidence for human responsibility for increasing global warming, which are directly causing changes in the cli- mate system, such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall, droughts and tropical cyclones.
It warned that these changes are irreversible for centuries to millennia, especially changes to the ocean, ice sheets and global sea levels.
The report shows that emissions of green- house gases from human activities are respon- sible for approximately 1.1°C of warming since 1850-1900, and finds that averaged over the next 20 years, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming.
“This report reflects extraordinary efforts under exceptional circumstances,” said Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC. “The innovations in this report, and advances in climate science that it reflects, provide an invaluable input into climate negotiations and decision-making.”
Limiting future climate change
The report was blunt in stressing that the current science now requires limiting cumulative CO2 emissions to at a minimum of net zero as quickly as possible if global warming is to be limited to 1.5°C or even 2°C this century.
Otherwise, temperatures will continue to increase, directly causing changes to the climate system that will become faster and more cata- strophic at the century progresses.
“Stabilising the climate will require strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and reaching net zero CO2 emis- sions. Limiting other greenhouse gases and air pollutants, especially methane, could have ben- efits both for health and the climate,” said IPCC
Working Group I Co-Chair Panmao Zhai.
Yet the report said that while efforts to reach net zero in the coming decades could reduce the intensity of climate change and the frequency of natural disasters, such as heatwaves, droughts and the reduction in Arctic Sea Ice, it warned that many changes are irreversible and that any
efforts at mitigations have come too late. Indeed, all that can be done now is limit future global warming, while accepting that the
climate change that takes place is irreversible. For example, the report said that reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions quickly could lead within years to discernible reductions in GHG and aerosol concentrations and air quality. This could mean that the rising trends for global surface temperatures could change dis-
cernibly within 20 years.
Put simply, it will take 20 years for major
reductions in emissions to make any inroads into global warming and for temperatures to stabilise, so difficult will it be to push global temperatures away from their current upward trends.
Cost of Carbon
The report gives credence to recent to efforts already proposed by governments, such as emissions trading schemes, the EU Green Deal and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), to force businesses and industries to reduce emissions and to pay cash for the CO2 they produce.
The UN’s report, which comes ahead of the COP26 conference in Glasgow in Novem- ber 2021, will place CO2 emissions and how to manage and reduce them at the top of the investment agendas of polluting industries, such as steel, chemicals, power generation and fertilisers.
The report will also lead more institutional and equity investors to limit or even end their investments in dirty sectors of the economy, such as coal and steel.
“The IPCC’s messages make sobering read- ing for all financial decision-makers. Recent shifts towards net-zero, resilient investment by private sector firms and governments must now be rapidly accelerated, now that we have an updated understanding both of the risks involved and of the limited time window to address them. The financial system must sup- port the economic transformation that we need, ending finance for outdated technologies and
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 32 11•August•2021