Monday the 20th of March (2023) saw the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sixth assessment report. The Panel, made up of important climate scientists from around the world, have put the report together to deliver their ‘final warning’.
The report states that world leaders must act, both quickly and drastically, if we have any chance of averting irrevocable damage to our planet. The scientists have claimed that keeping the temperature under the 1.5ᴼC rise is still achievable, if necessary, measures are put in place quickly by all world leaders. However, currently the world is off track to reach this target.
There has been warning that without these measures, including reducing emissions, increasing climate mitigation, significantly reducing the amount of money put into fossil fuel projects and increasing climate action, the effects of climate change could become irreversible.
One of the biggest factors the report claims the world needs is an increase in finance to help reverse climate change’s impacts. One of the report’s authors and one of the world’s leaders in climate research, Christopher Trisos states:
“Accelerated climate action will only come about
if there is a many-fold increase in finance. Insufficient and
misaligned finance is holding back progress.”
Within their over one thousand page report, the Panel have set out how these people are being affected by climate change. Detailing how these problems are causing significant damage not just to our planet, through damaging ecosystems, but to people’s livelihoods, homes, and how they are creating hunger.
Already over 3 billion people are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, due to extreme weather events, rising sea levels, rising temperatures, food insecurity and pollution. This is causing huge waves of displacement as many people cannot live within these conditions.
To protect both people and the planet, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres stated that:
“This report is a clarion call to massively
fast-track climate efforts by every country
and every sector and on every timeframe.
Our world needs climate action on all fronts:
everything, everywhere, all at once.”
