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Unprecedented changes are needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (UN)

9 October 2018
Environment
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“Unprecedented” changes are needed in how the society is functioning in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius below the agreed limit, otherwise there is a risk of multiplied heat waves, floods or droughts in certain regions, a UN report shows, according to Reuters.

Maintaining global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius and not at the 2 degrees Celsius target agreed by the 2015 Paris Agreement “would have clear benefits for the population and natural ecosystems,” said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the press release announcing the publication of the report.

According to the IPCC report, at the current global warming rate, temperatures will most likely increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2030 and 2052, after rising by 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels since the mid-1800s.

Keeping the target at 1.5 degrees Celsius will limit the rise in the seas below 0.1 meters by 2100, the report says. This could reduce the floods; people living in coastal areas, islands or river deltas would have more time to adapt to climate change, according to Agerpres.

The objective of maintaining global warming below the Paris Agreement would help to reduce the phenomenon of species extinction, and the impact on terrestrial, freshwater and coastal aquatic ecosystems, the report says.

“Any additional level of global warming matters, especially since a warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius or higher increases the risk associated with long-lasting and irreversible changes, such as the disappearance of certain ecosystems,” says Hans-Otto Pörtner, who leads one of the IPCC working groups.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change gathered last week in Incheon, South Korea, to finalize a report requested by governments in 2015, for assessing the feasibility and importance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The paper is considered to be the main scientific guide to the implementation of the Paris Agreement of 2015 for policymakers to meet at the Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland, in December.

To keep the global warming rate at 1.5 degrees Celsius, global carbon dioxide emissions will have to drop by about 45% by 2030 compared to 2010 and reach zero by the middle of the century.

According to the report, renewable energy will have to provide between 70% and 85% of electricity by 2050, compared to 25% of the current.

Also, while using carbon capture and storage (CCS), the share of energy produced from natural gas will have to be reduced by 8 percent, and coal-based energy below 2 percent.

“The report shows that we have very little opportunities left for avoiding the unimaginable damage to the climate system as we know it”, said Amjad Abdulla, a member of the IPCC board and the main negotiator for an alliance of small island states which risk being flooded because of rising sea levels.

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