The UN is preparing to put out on Monday its starkest warning on climate change, detailing the world’s urgent changes in oceans and land masses in the coming decades.
The report prepared by the UN the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be the first compiled comprehensive study on the science of global heating since 2013, ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow this upcoming November.
Core concepts of the report are expected to focus on the rise of global temperatures driven by carbon dioxide and methane emissions, as the world is coming dangerously close to breaching The Paris Agreement of curbing global temperatures below 1.5 degree celsius. Currently, Global heating has seen the planet warm 1.1C.
In its last report in 2013, the IPCC took on a broader approach, saying humans were the “dominant cause” of global warming since the 50s. The new report will focus more on regional climate change, putting emphasis on how climate events, happening in different places of the world, are linked to human activity.
A draft assessment of the report seen by the AFP details for example how the Mediterranean countries face “highly interconnected climate risks,” with temperatures expected to soar in the region much faster compared to the global average.
“Reasons for concern include sea-level rise related risks, land and marine biodiversity losses, risks related to drought, wildfire, alterations of water cycle, endangered food production, health risks in both urban and rural settlements from heat, and altered disease vectors,” the assessment said.
The current wildfires ravaging parts of southern Europe will increase by up to 87 percent if Earth’s average surface temperature warms two degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels. While 71 percent of the Middle East and North Africa region’s GDP is exposed to high or very high water stress, and 61 percent of its population, it says.
add your comment
Terms of publication : Not to offend the writer, people, sacred things, or attack religions or the divine self, and refrain from racist incitement and insults.