Chennai The “pace and scale” of global climate action in the last five years, and the current plans, are “insufficient” to tackle the problem of climate change, says the ‘Synthesis Report’ of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released today. 

More than a century of burning fossil fuels as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use has led to global warming of 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, the report says. “This has resulted in more frequent and more intense extreme weather events that have caused increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world,” it says. 

IPCC is a scientific body established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to provide scientific data for use by policy makers. It assesses the global climate action status when asked for. Since 2018, in its 6th assessment cycle, it has released four reports—one special report and the reports of three working groups on ‘physical science’, ‘adaptation’ and ‘mitigation’. 

The Synthesis Report, released today, is a composite report—a sort of a summary of the four reports. 

While the message – that climate action is inadequate and world is headed towards major climate crisis – is nothing new, the report released today is one more hammer bang to hit home the message. It underscores the urgent need for climate action and stresses that “if we act now, we can still secure liveable, sustainable future for all.” 

Greenhouse gas emissions reduction

In this decade, accelerated action to adapt to climate change is essential to close the gap between existing adaptation and what is needed, it says. Meanwhile, keeping warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels requires deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors. Emissions should be decreasing by now and will need to be cut by almost half by 2030, if warming is to be limited to 1.5°C. 

The solution lies in climate resilient development. This involves integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide wider benefits. 

  For example, access to clean energy and technologies improves health, especially for women and children; low-carbon electrification, walking, cycling and public transport enhance air quality, improve health, employment opportunities and deliver equity. The economic benefits for people’s health from air quality improvements alone would be roughly the same, or possibly even larger than the costs of reducing or avoiding emissions. 

“There is sufficient global capital to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions if existing barriers are reduced. Increasing finance to climate investments is important to achieve global climate goals. Governments, through public funding and clear signals to investors, are key in reducing these barriers. Investors, central banks and financial regulators can also play their part,” the report says. 

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