We have the technology needed to limit warming to 1.5°C, but the scale of action now required is becoming ever more socially and politically unfeasible, say the authors of the latest IPCC report
“Today’s report reveals the sheer scale of the ambition required to avoid the worst consequences of climate change,” says Jones. “Current policies are not on track.”Get a dose of climate optimism delivered straight to your inbox every month.In theory, even if the world passes the 1.5°C mark in the coming decades, removing huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could cool the planet back down to 1.5°C by 2100, but we don’t yet have the technology.
“It is not currently considered possible to withdraw the volume of carbon dioxide needed to achieve that from the atmosphere,” said– and causing widespread damage and losses. The impacts will get even worse with every bit of extra warming, the IPCC report warns. Some of the consequences may not be reversible even if we do manage to remove enough CO2 to cool the planet back down later this century.
“This synthesis shows just how much the 1.1 degrees [of warming] so far is adversely affecting human and natural systems – that means, is killing people and destroying their livelihoods,” says Otto. The report also shows the inequity of climate change, she says. “Those causing the problems are not the ones suffering the consequences.”The IPCC was set up by the UN in 1988 to review the science on climate change and how to limit it. It has done six rounds of reports since then, and this is the last of that sixth round. We’ve already had the sixth reports on
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