Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)<\/a>.<\/p>\nWith the report set to be presented at a major climate summit in Poland in December, known as COP24, there is little time for squabbles. The report noted that emissions need to be cut by 45% by 2030 in order to keep warming within 1.5C. That means decisions have to be taken in the next two years to decommission coal power plants and replace them with renewables, because major investments usually have a lifecycle of at least a decade.<\/p>\n
Mary Robinson, a UN special envoy on climate, said Europe should set an example by adopting a target of zero-carbon emissions by 2050. \u201cBefore this, people talked vaguely about staying at or below 2C \u2013 we now know that 2C is dangerous,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it is really important that governments take the responsibility, but we must all do what we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UK, which has gone further than most nations by cutting its annual emissions by 40% since 1990, will need to step up if the more ambitious goal is to be reached.<\/p>\n
Claire Perry, minister for energy, said the government would outline its next steps in the next few days: \u201cI welcome the strong scientific analysis behind today\u2019s IPCC report and its conclusions are stark and sober. As policymakers we need to work together to accelerate the low-carbon transition to minimise the costs and misery of a rapidly warming world.\u201d<\/p>\n
But her failure to spell out how this would be achieved was criticised by Green party MP Caroline Lucas, who said the UK government has slashed support for renewables, pushed ahead with fracking and airport expansion, and continues to subsidise fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf ministers are serious about taking the action they admit is needed,\u201d Lucas said, \u201cthe government would commit today to reversing the freeze on fuel duty announced last week and lifting the ban on onshore wind turbines. And crucially, Claire Perry must stop forcing fracking on communities who\u2019ve rejected it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bob Ward, of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, said the UK had a good track record but needed to be more ambitious, which would require action across a wider area of government: \u201cMore effort is needed from other departments. For instance, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government needs to be more proactive in ensuring that buildings become zero-carbon as soon as possible. And the Department for Transport must be more ambitious on developing electric vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Politicians, scientists and climate activists will hold a meeting chaired by Lord Krebs, former member of the Committee on Climate Change, in parliament on Wednesday to discuss the new 1.5C report and consider policy options.<\/p>\n
Among those attending will be Jim Skea, a co-chair of the IPCC working group on mitigation. \u201cMy biggest hope is that they [political leaders] take this seriously,\u201d Skea said. \u201cWe can\u2019t carry on with business as usual or minor changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donald Trump has also announced that the US will pull out of the climate deal. And in Australia, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said there was no money for \u201cglobal climate conferences and all that nonsense\u201d.<\/p>\n
So far, however, no government has actually dropped out and civil society groups say the new report by scientists will help them put pressure on leaders to aim for the safer, lower level of warming.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny administration, and it would appear especially the US and Australia, that pushes damaging domestic policies and picks apart science consensus is a dangerous outlier by ignoring the deadly impacts now due to climate chaos,\u201d said Rachel Kennerley of Friends of the Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cInternational cooperation is manifestly preferable but the rest of the world will have to double down on efforts \u2013 it\u2019s a shortsighted block to the global efforts needed that this report sets out, but it\u2019s not insurmountable either.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, said the urgent message of the report \u201cmust be carried into the halls of power and the negotiation rooms at COP24. This should be a moral imperative for all leaders around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonathan Watts and Matthew Taylor, London, 8 Oct 2018 Even half degree of extra warming will affect hundreds of millions of people, decimate corals and intensify heat extremes, report shows World leaders have been told they have moral obligation to ramp up their action on the climate crisis in the wake of a new UN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4878"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4879,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4878\/revisions\/4879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}