UN climate report confirms rising heat, emissions a threat to humanity

NEW DELHI: A report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has re-confirmed that rising temperatures and emissions are an imminent threat to humanity and urged the world to ramp up their efforts to uphold their commitment with the Paris Agreement.

The Synthesis Report, which underlined the importance of inequity and justice in emissions, also provided many “effective” options to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG).

The report has integrated the main findings of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, which evaluated science related to climate change, based on contributions from the three working groups. The report, approved during a week–long session in Interlaken (Switzerland), underscored the loss and damage issue.

It stated that almost half of the world’s population, which is around 3.3-3.6 billion, are in the planet’s vulnerable region and will continue experiencing damage to their ecosystem. Vulnerable communities that have historically contributed the least to climate change are being disproportionately affected. 

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“Almost half of the world’s population are living in highly vulnerable regions were 15 times more likely to die from floods, droughts and storms between 2010-2020 than those living in regions with very low vulnerability,” said Aditi Mukherji, one of the 93 authors of this Synthesis Report. It has underscored the unequal historical and present-day contributions of GHG emissions.

The 10 per cent of households with the highest emissions per person contribute 34–45 per cent of all household emissions, while the bottom 50 per cent contribute 13–15 per cent, according to the report.

“The Synthesis Report endorses India’s call for equity and climate justice,” said Bhupendra Yadav, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The report gives a grim picture of the current state of the planet. The global surface temperature has increased faster in five decades, with higher concentrations of GHGs such as CO2, methane and nitrous oxide in the past million years. 

Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have increased by 47.3 per cent, reaching annual averages of 410 parts per million. Methane (CH4) is at 1,866 parts per billion, up by 157.8 per cent. Of these activities, reliance on fossil fuels is the root cause of climate change in 2019, coal, oil and gas contributed to 80 per cent of all human-related CO2 emissions.