Responses will face challenges with high warming of the climate.
Yokohama, Japan, 31 March - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) issued a report that says the effects of climate change are already
occurring on all continents and across the oceans. The world, in many cases, is
ill-prepared for risks from a changing climate. The report also concludes that
there are opportunities to respond to such risks, though the risks will be
difficult to manage with high levels of warming.
The report concludes that responding to climate change involves making
choices about risks in a changing world. The nature of the risks of climate
change is increasingly clear, though climate change will also continue to
produce surprises. The report identifies vulnerable people, industries, and
ecosystems around the world. It finds that risk from a changing climate comes
from vulnerability (lack of preparedness) and exposure (people or assets in
harm's way) overlapping with hazards (triggering climate events or trends).
Each of these three components can be a target for smart actions to decrease
risk.
UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner
said: "The latest science cited by the IPCC assessment provides conclusive
scientific evidence that human activities are causing unprecedented changes in
the Earth's climate. It is time to take immediate and robust action to mitigate
the impacts of climate change. The clock is ticking and time is not on our
side. As recent studies show, greenhouse gas emissions at or above current
rates would induce changes in the oceans, ice caps, glaciers, the biosphere and
other components of the climate system. Some of these changes would very likely
be unprecedented over decades to thousands of years. Limiting climate change
would require substantial and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gasses."
"Climate change is a long term challenge but one that requires
urgent action today, given the risks of a more that 2 degrees C temperature
rise. For those who want to focus on the scientific question marks, that is
their right to do so. But today, we need to focus on the fundamentals and on
actions. Otherwise the risks we run will get higher with every passing
day," he added.
"We live in an era of man -made climate change," said
Vicente Barros, Co -Chair of Working Group II. "In many cases, we are not
prepared for the climate -related risks that we already face. Investments in
better preparation can pay dividends both for the prese nt and for the
future."
Adaptation to reduce the risks from a changing climate is now starting
to occur, but with a stronger focus on reacting to past events than on
preparing for a changing future, according to Chris Field, Co-Chair of Working
Group II.
"Climate -change adaptation is not an exotic agenda that has
never been tried. Governments, firms, and communities around the world are
building experience with adaptation," Field said. "This experience
forms a starting point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that will be
important as climate and society continue to change."
Future risks from a changing climate depend strongly on the amount of
future climate change. Increasing magnitudes of warming increase the likelihood
of severe and pervasive impacts that may be surprising or irreversible.
"With high levels of warming that result from continued growth in
greenhouse gas emissions, risks will be challenging to manage, and even
serious, sustained investments in adaptation will face limits," said Field.
Observed impacts of climate change have already affected agriculture,
human health, ecosystems on land and in the oceans, water supplies, and some
people's livelihoods. The striking feature of observed impacts is that they are
occurring from the tropics to the poles, from small islands to large
continents, and from the wealthiest countries to the poorest.
"The report concludes that people, societies, and ecosystems are
vulnerable around the world, but with different vulnerability in different
places. Climate change often interact s with other stresses to increase
risk," Field said.
Adaptation can play a key role in decreasing these risks, Barros
noted. "Part of the reason adaptation is so important is that the world
faces a host of risks from climate change already baked into the climate
system, due to past emissions and existing infrastructure, " said Barros.
Field added: "Understanding that climate change is a challenge in
managing risk opens a wide range of opportunities for integrating adaptation with
economic and social development and with initiatives to limit future warming.
We definitely face challenges, but understanding those challenges and tackling
them creatively can make climate -change adaptation an important way to help
build a mo re vibrant world in the near -term and beyond."
Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the IPCC, said: "The Working Group II
report is another important step forward in our understanding of how to reduce
and manage the risks of climate change. Along with the reports from Working
Group I and Working Group III, it provides a conceptual map of not only the
essential features of the climate challenge but the options for
solutions."
The Working Group I report was released in September 2013, and the
Working Group III repo rt will be released in April 2014. The IPCC Fifth
Assessment Report cycle concludes with the publication of its Synthesis Report
in October 2014.
"None of this would be possible without the dedication of the Co
-Chairs of Working Group II and the hundred s of scientists and experts who
volunteered their time to produce this report, as well as the more than 1,700
expert reviewers worldwide who contributed their invaluable oversight,"
Pachauri said. "The IPCC's reports are some of the most ambitious scientific
undertakings in human history, and I am humbled by and grateful for the
contributions of everyone who make them possible."
No comments:
Post a Comment