The world's leading climate scientists on Monday delivered their starkest warning yet about the deepening climate emergency, with some of the changes already set in motion thought to be "irreversible" for centuries to come.
A highly anticipated report by the U.N.'s climate panel warns that limiting global warming to close to 1.5 degrees Celsius or even 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels "will be beyond reach" in the next two decades without immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. To be sure, the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold is a crucial global target because beyond this level, so-called tipping points become more likely. Tipping points refer to an irreversible change in the climate system, locking in further global heating.
At 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, the report says heat extremes would often reach critical tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health.
U.N. Secretary-General, António Guterres described the report as "a code red for humanity."
"The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk," Guterres said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest findings, approved by 195 member states on Friday, deals with the physical science basis of climate change and outline how humans are altering the planet. It is the first installment of four reports released under the IPCC's current assessment cycle, with subsequent reports scheduled to be published next year.
The first part of the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report provides world leaders with a gold standard summation of modern climate science ahead of U.N. climate talks, known as COP26, in early November.
Reacting to the report's publication, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry said the report underscored the "overwhelming urgency of this moment." U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped it could be a "wake-up call" for global leaders ahead of COP26.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said the report contained no real surprises. "We can still avoid the worst consequences, but not if we continue like today, and not without treating the crisis like a crisis."
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