Photo: ANP
The United Nations Climate Panel will publish an important new report on the consequences of climate change on Monday. The report also discusses how countries can adapt to the consequences of climate change, such as sea level rise.
In mid-February, the group of climate scientists began the long meeting on this report. IPCC reports are considered worldwide. Discussion of the executive summary, which summarizes the main conclusions of the report, includes representatives from governments. Because this text is discussed sentence by sentence, the reports are also an important resource for political decision-making. Scientists always have the last word.
At the opening ceremony ahead of the meeting, the head of the UN Environment Agency, Inger Andersen, said scientific knowledge about the impact of climate change was “absolutely necessary” to bring a “pollution-free planet” closer. German Education and Science Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger described the IPCC reports as “our gold standard. We all depend on it”.
The latest IPCC report was published in August of last year. Scientists have warned that the Earth will warm by 1.5 degrees Celsius in the coming decades if drastic measures are not taken around the world. Five scenarios appeared in the report. In the most optimistic case, the Earth will warm by 1.5 ° C. In the doomsday scenario, the Earth would be 5.7 degrees warmer in eighty years. Among other things, it would cause a massive rise in sea level and increase famine.
Scientists have stated that the best-case scenario is only possible if net carbon dioxide emissions are no longer seen by 2050. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the report as a wake-up call and US President Joe Biden called for an ambitious climate policy. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he found the report “extremely disturbing”. He stated that the government should do more to achieve the climate goals.
