The window to act on climate change is closing
“Today’s report by the IPCC is a stark reminder that we have limited time in which to act to prevent more devastating impacts from climate change. The report, based on the latest climate science, has observed unprecedented changes in the climate system. Every region of the world, across the entire climate system, has already been impacted by extreme event. There is ever greater certainty about climate change and ever greater urgency about the need to tackle it.
The role of human influence is undisputed and has resulted in warming of the atmosphere, ocean and land. The report reinforces and builds on existing evidence, which links extreme weather events to climate change. Some changes, such as the rise in sea level, are irreversible.
For Ireland and Europe the report predicts more intense heatwaves and increased flooding as temperatures rise. If global temperature rise by more than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels there will be critical consequences for agriculture and health.
The most serious conclusion is that the window of time to stabilise our climate is closing. Here in Ireland we recently passed the Climate Act, which commits us to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest, and a cut of 51% by 2030 (compared to 2018 levels). We will very shortly publish the Climate Action Plan 2021, which will set out the measures we need to take to reach our 2030 targets, including more renewable energy, decreased transport emissions, changes in how we heat our homes and how we grow our food and look after our land. These steps will be challenging but they will also create new opportunities.
All countries must play their part. The COP26 conference in November will be a critical juncture, where we must also agree solutions to support the most vulnerable in the world who face unprecedented climate extremes.
Today’s report makes it clear that failure to act will have devastating consequences, but it also offers hope. Strong and sustained reductions in emissions of C02 and other greenhouse gases would limit climate change. We know what we have to do. We now need to harness a national and global effort to do it.”
ENDS
Note to the editor:
This statement follows the publication of a report by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).
The report – Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – addresses the most updated physical understanding of the climate system and climate change.
The report involves 234 authors from 66 countries, plus 517 contributing authors and contains more than 14,000 cited references.
The IPCC is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change.