Environmental IssuesGlobal Warming and Climate Change

African experts say IPCC report stresses need for more actions on climate change

Some African experts has described the recent report by the scientists of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on climate change as a reminder of urgent need to tackle the adverse global weather conditions.

This Synthesis Report released by the body calls for more urgent ambitious actions to secure a liveable sustainable future for all.

The report of 93 author’s said that five years after IPCC highlighted the unprecedented scale of the challenge required to keep warming to 1.5°C, that the challenge has become even greater due to a continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

IPCC said the pace and scale of what has been done so far, and current plans, are insufficient to tackle climate change.

“More than a century of burning fossil fuels as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use has led to global warming of 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. This has resulted in more frequent and more intense extreme weather events that have caused increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world.

“Every increment of warming results in rapidly escalating hazards. More intense heatwaves, heavier rainfall and other weather extremes further increase risks for human health and ecosystems. In every region, people are dying from extreme heat. Climate-driven food and water insecurity is expected to increase with increased warming. When the risks combine with other adverse events, such as pandemics or conflicts, they become even more difficult to manage.

IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee said that mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits.

One of the author’s of the report, Aditi Mukherji said that Climate justice is crucial because those who have contributed least to climate change are being disproportionately affected.

She said that almost half of the world’s population lives in regions that are highly vulnerable to climate change, adding that in the last decade, deaths from floods, droughts and storms were 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions.

Providing a way forward, IPCC said that keeping warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels requires deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors.

“Emissions should be decreasing by now and will need to be cut by almost half by 2030, if warming is to be limited to 1.5°C. The solution lies in climate resilient development. This involves integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide wider benefits.

It added “access to clean energy and technologies improves health, especially for women and children; low-carbon electrification, walking, cycling and public transport enhance air quality, improve health, employment opportunities and deliver equity. The economic benefits for people’s health from air quality improvements alone would be roughly the same, or possibly even larger than the costs of reducing or avoiding emissions.”

Commenting on the report, Environmentalist, Nnimmo Bassey said “The IPCC report again confirms that the world is on track to catastrophic climate change. In addition the UN General Secretary has sounded many alarms. Unfortunately, the polluters and powerful politicians continue to push false solutions such as carbon offsets, carbon trading, net zero and carbon capture and storage — rather than shifting away from polluting fossil fuels. All these mortgage the future of the next generations. It is disturbing that this situation is being tolerated.

In same vein, David Mike Terungwa, Team Lead GIFSEP, Citizens Climate International said “The IPCC report has shown that we are not on the right path to achieving a livable world. This is a further call to global leaders to listen to science. What more evidence do we need? people are dying from extreme weather events. Just a few days ago cyclone freddy wreaked havoc in Malawi and Mozambique, the drought in parts of Kenya and fresh in my mind is the 2022 floods in Nigeria. All of these impacts affect the most vulnerable people, the poorest of the poor while the big polluters and fossil fuel companies keep declaring huge profits that benefit few people. Polluters must pay for these injustices to man and to the earth.

“As citizens we must rise up and demand for climate justice ensuring that we do not vote climate deniers into political offices. The IPCC report is reminding us that we are already in a climate emergency and it will be a dangerous mistake to elect climate deniers.

Commenting on the report, Adenike Oladosu, Director/Founder at Lead Climate Action Initiative said it keeps reminding us of the impending doom if we don’t act on the climate crisis.

“The climate crisis does not recognize the rich nor the poor, white or black, male or female, it will hit us all. The danger of leaders not taking the expected decision now means; we will see more rise in the sea level, cyclones & floods more than ever before, droughts and the rise of more new and existing crises.

“The IPCC report is a roadmap towards navigating our way out of a warming planet. We need to phase out fossil fuels and invest in renewable sources of energy and innovation. The faster we act, the better we save ourselves from the consequential impacts of the climate crisis. Every bit of warming matters!”

The Authority – Nigeria

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