Abuja – The more warming, the more extreme weather we will see, report warns, so every 0.1C of warming we can prevent matters
Heatwaves, flooding and droughts will be more frequent and more intense as the world is set to hit the 1.5C global warming limit in the next 20 years, a landmark United Nations review has predicted.
The milestone scientific assessment says the rate of warming in the last 2,000 years has been “unprecedented” and it was “unequivocal” that human influence has warmed the world. Human activity is already responsible for 1.1C of global warming since 1850, it said.
Every inhabited region on Earth is already impacted by climate change and the report found that the accepted 1.5C limit will be met even in the best case scenario, causing more regular extreme weather events.
UN: Climate change poses ‘immediate threat’
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, more than 190 governments agreed the world should limit global warming to 2C or ideally 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
The report warns that even in the most optimistic scenarios, some changes are already locked in to our systems, including sea level rise. This will never be reversed, not even under the lowest emissions scenario.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg said the report “confirms what we already know… that we are in an emergency.”
“We can still avoid the worst consequences, but not if we continue like today, and not without treating the crisis like a crisis,” she said on Twitter.
Sky News