A major UN “report of reports” from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlines various options that can be taken now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change.
The study, “Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report”, released on Monday following a week-long IPCC session in Interlaken, brings into sharp focus the losses and damages experienced now, and expected to continue into the future, which are hitting the most vulnerable people and ecosystems especially hard.
The summary was published while a new regasification terminal was arriving in Italy, a huge new oil field in Alaska had been approved in the United States and 168 new coal-fired plants were in the process of being approved in China. The mandate of science at this point seems almost a prayer: emissions must peak at a maximum in 2025, almost halve by the end of this decade and zero by 2050. In 2022 they continued to grow, plus 0.9 compared to the previous year, reaching an all-time high: 39.8 Gigatonnes.
This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a livable sustainable future for all.
