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Water Today Title March 28, 2024

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Features

Update 2018/10/12
Climate Change


IPCC REPORT URGES RAPID RESPONSE TO LIMIT GLOBAL WARMING



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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report this week stating the importance of limiting the world's total global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius instead of the 2 degrees Celsius agreed to under The Paris Agreement in 2015.

When The Paris Agreement was adopted by 195 nations, the IPCC was asked to prepare a special report that would examine this two-degree goal, in addition to related issues of sustainable development and eradicating poverty.

The UN organization released the 728 page report at a meeting in Incheon, South Korea on October 8. It is intended to inform the upcoming Katowice Climate Change Conference in December when The Paris Agreement will be reviewed.

This report if the first of a series of IPCC special reports. Next year, the IPCC will release the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, and Climate Change and Land.

Compiled by 91 authors and review editors from 40 countries, it warns that to avoid long-lasting, irreversible changes to the world's ecosystems, immediate action must be taken.

Among them is the impact on rising sea levels. The report states that if the overall increase is limited to 1.5ºC compared to pre-industrial times instead of 2ºC, global sea level rise would be 10 centimeters lower.

It states with medium confidence that "a reduction of 0.1 m in global sea level rise implies that up to 10 million fewer people would be exposed to related risks, based on population in the year 2010 and assuming no adaptation."

Reaching a 2ºC increase would also result in Antarctic ice sheet instability. Estimates showed that with a 1.5ºC increase the chance of there being no ice in the Arctic Ocean in summer was once every hundred years instead of once every decade.

That extra 0.5ºC is also the difference between losing 70 to 90% as opposed to over 99% of the world's coral reefs.

Achieving this ambitious goal would require quick and dramatic action from global governments but the report's authors said it is not impossible.

Debra Roberts, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II said "the decisions we make today are critical in ensuring a safe and sustainable world for everyone, both now and in the future."

It is estimated that overall global warming of 1.5ºC is expected to be reached between 2030 and 2052 at the current rate.

"This report gives policymakers and practitioners the information they need to make decisions that tackle climate change while considering local context and people's needs. The next few years are probably the most important in our history," said Roberts.

m.moore@watertoday.ca



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