World About To Pass Critical Temperature Threshold, UN Warns

Topline

United Nations scientists warned Monday the world is on track to pass a critical temperature threshold believed to be essential to combat climate change by the early 2030s—as scientists resound the alarm for drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions they say are necessary to prevent catastrophic droughts, heat waves and sea-level rise.

The IPCC warned Monday global temperature rise could pass the threshold established in the Paris … [+] Climate Agreement by the early 2030s.

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Key Facts

Within 10 years the Earth could surpass the monumental 1.5 degree Celsius global temperature threshold laid out in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, as the result of an “insufficient” pace of climate action, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in a meeting Monday.

Hitting that threshold will trigger more frequent and intense droughts and flooding, water security issues, damage to the global economy and death, IPCC scientists warned, with those impacts becoming “increasingly difficult to manage,” according to IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee.

In order to delay that 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) mark, Lee said countries need to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, and implement “climate resilient development,” including the development of clean energy, water and air.

IPCC members also urged countries to stave off new coal production, arguing it should be eliminated in rich countries by 2030 and in poor countries by 2040.

Inger Andersen, the director of the U.N. Environment Programme, urged countries to “turn down the heat” by cutting greenhouse emissions, a decision she called “the ultimate no-brainer.”

Crucial Quote

“Humanity is on thin ice, and that ice is melting fast,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned Monday, adding, “our world needs climate action on all fronts—everything, everywhere, all at once.”

Tangent

Lee also stressed the countries most vulnerable to climate change are often the ones that contribute least to its impacts. People who live in those countries were up to 15 times more likely to die from droughts, floods and storms over the past 10 years, Lee said. In a study published in the journal Climate Change last July, researchers at Dartmouth College found greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2014 in the U.S. and China—the two biggest polluters—caused roughly $3.6 trillion in worldwide damages.

Key Background

UN scientists warned in October global greenhouse gas emissions will increase by nearly 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century—a 10.6% increase over 2010 levels, and significantly higher than the 43% reduction by 2030 deemed necessary by the IPCC to hit the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. Scientists have blamed a rise in global temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions for ecological disruption, sea-level rise, more intense and frequent deadly heat waves, as well as stronger storms and droughts.

Chief Critic

In the U.S., initiatives aimed at curbing climate change have been met with steady resistance from Republicans in Congress, who argue legislation that hinders oil, coal and natural gas production would hurt American workers in the energy industry. Last summer, GOP lawmakers criticized the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $360 billion in climate change measures, including green energy production. At the time, Republican firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colo.) slammed the bill for “sacrificing American families at the altar of climate change.” Last June, the Supreme Court curbed the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory authority on greenhouse gasses, ruling in favor of a group of GOP-led states and coal producers that had asked for a limit on EPA regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Facing local opposition, the Biden Administration approved an $8 billion Alaska oil project last week, despite environmentalists’ pleas, including from former Vice President Al Gore, who called it “recklessly irresponsible.”