Global warming to cross crucial limit, natural disasters to intensify: UN climate change report

Climate change is a serious issue that the world's leaders must address. Days after scientists expressed alarm about the climate hitting a tipping point, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a serious warning, predicting that the world will reaching warming at the critical level of 1.5 degrees Celsius in two decades.

The UN's IPCC has released its sixth assessment report on climate change. According to the report, human impact is causing irreversible climate change in every region of the world.

Since July 26, 195 member countries have validated the report in virtual sessions held over two weeks. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) stressed that the latest report if “code red” for all humans, "Today's IPCC Working Group 1 Report is a code red for humanity."

Reaching critical climate change threshold – What to expect?

In a first, the UN IPCC has assessed the probability of extreme events across a variety of scenarios. Increased heat waves, longer warm seasons, and shorter cold seasons will result from 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming.

Heavy rain storms that used to occur once every decade are now 1.3 times more common and 6.7 percent more intense than they were 50 years ago.

Heat extremes would be more likely to approach crucial tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health at 2 degrees Celsius of global warming.

Rising sea levels would cause more frequent and intense coastal flooding in low-lying locations. Droughts may occur every five or six years by the end of the century, according to the analysis.

The possibilities and worse scenarios

The IPCC Working Group’s release will be the first part of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on climate change. AR6 is expected to be finished in 2022.

According to the IPCC research, increasing warming implies more frequent extreme heat waves. Permafrost thawing, loss of seasonal snow cover, and melting of glaciers and ice sheets will all be intensified by continued global warming.

According to Panmao Zhai, IPCC co-chair, climate change is already affecting every corner of the planet.

Are there any positives?

The IPCC report expressed optimism asserting that global warming may be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to the IPCC report, global temperatures may not settle for another 20-30 years.

Dr Friederike Otto, Associate Director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford and one of the IPCC report's authors said, “If we reduce emissions globally to net-zero by 2040 there is still a two-thirds chance to reach 1.5 degrees and if we globally achieve net-zero emissions by the middle of the century, there is still a one-third chance to achieve that.”

For the first time, the sixth assessment report presents a more specific regional evaluation of climate change.

According to the findings, the paradigm shift improves in translating physical climate changes into what they entail for society and ecosystems.

It also focuses on meaningful data that can be used to guide risk analysis, adaptation, and other decision-making.