The reports paints a bleak picture and the threat to humans and the Earth is imminent
Environmental promotion organisation, A Rocha Ghana is making a case for African government to step up efforts towards the fight of climate change in the bid to support global efforts.
According to the organisation, the latest report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has shown that global temperatures will continue to rise and weather extremes would become more intense if there is no radical and immediate action to cut our greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).
It said the reports paints a bleak picture and the threat to humans and the Earth is imminent.
The Global Outlook
The overriding message in the report is that things will get worse before it gets better. It is now irrefutable that the unprecedented warming of the world since industrialisation has been caused by GHGs from human activities.
They are also the main drivers of changes such as increased global precipitation, shrinking glaciers and ice sheets, sea level rise, and ocean warming and acidification. The increased frequency and intensity of rainfall, floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves are also all down to our own activities.
The report noted the increasing pace of sea level rise – reaching an average 3.7 mm yr-1 for 2006-2018 – will continue for 100s to 1000s of years as the warmer temperatures continue melting glaciers and ice sheets. Other changes are also locked in for decades due to emissions that have already happened.
Using five levels of GHG emission scenarios to model how the climate system will react, the report explains how the impacts get bigger as the emissions increase. While 2oC global warming is extremely unlikely by the end of the century under the low emissions scenarios, it is very likely within just 20-40 years under the very high GHG emissions scenario. Sea level rise under very low emissions will be half the rise projected for very high levels.
Therefore, there is the need for a radical and immediate step-up in action on GHG emissions to ensure the worst-case scenarios never happen.
Reaching net zero for human-caused CO2 emissions – where their production is balanced by their removal – is urgent to stabilize human-induced global temperature rise.
Human-made techniques for removing CO2 from the atmosphere have been developed, but they have wide impacts on water availability and quality, food production and biodiversity. We must avoid them at all cost and reach net zero through real and fast GHG emissions reductions and increased natural carbon sinks, the report noted.