IPCC alarmed: Consequences of climate change "more destructive" than expected - time is short

Created: 02/28/2022, 15:02

In the future, its habitat will be increasingly threatened by climate change: polar bears are already fighting for their lives.

Human survival also depends on the current climate crisis.

© EKATERINA ANISIMOVA/AFP

The consequences of climate change have long been felt, but a fundamental rethink has not yet taken place.

Time is of the essence, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned.

Berlin/Geneva - It's not too late yet, is the clear message from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) when it comes to the realization of climate goals and climate protection efforts.

However, there is not much time left, because global warming is already leading to dangerous changes in nature.

Experts therefore speak for one

Compulsory insurance against natural hazards.

In its sixth assessment report, the IPCC also warns of the immediate consequences of climate change.

It's about the survival of humanity.

If nothing radical happens in the next few decades, the "window of opportunity" will be closed.

Climate change: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change publishes sixth assessment report

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was founded in 1988.

Every six years, experts from all over the world bring together the latest findings on climate change and the climate crisis.

The new report is part two of the sixth assessment report on climate change.

The first part on the scientific basis was published in August 2021.

The third part deals with ways to mitigate climate change.

The work, published on Monday (February 28), comprises more than ten thousand studies and was prepared by around 300 main authors.

After completion, a summary will be prepared for the governments of the countries, which they can use as a basis for their climate policy.

IPCC warns: Consequences of climate change "more destructive" than expected

The new report was presented on Monday.

The IPCC working group had little to report: "The impacts we are seeing today are occurring much more rapidly, are more destructive and far-reaching than anticipated 20 years ago."

The consequences are increased poverty and inequality and an increasing number of people who have to flee their homes.

According to the IPCC, even if we manage to limit warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, humanity will have to cope with significant effects in the next 20 years.

Expert on climate crisis: "We have a shrinking window of opportunity"

The governments are accused of hesitant and inadequate action.

Politicians are still not doing enough to avert the worst dangers.

The co-chair of the working group, the German marine biologist Hans-Otto Pörtner, has little understanding for this.

"We have a shrinking window of opportunity," he warned.

Something profound must happen by the end of the decade, otherwise this window will soon be closed forever.

Pörtner gives the federal government bad marks for its climate policy: "For the ambitions it gets a three and for the implementation a four minus so far," he told the German Press Agency.

Heat waves, droughts and floods: countries must act against climate change

The consequences of the climate crisis are already visible in all parts of the world: there are devastating forest fires like those in the Mediterranean and in the west of the USA, floods like in the Ahr and Erft region in July 2021, heat waves like in Siberia.

Torrential rain hits Australia, the country is under water.

For the IPCC, it is "clear" that climate change is a threat to the continued existence of humanity and the planet.

A man watches forest fires approach Kochyli beach near Limni village on Evia island (Greece).

© Thodoris Nikolaou/AP/dpa

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasizes with regard to climate change: No rethinking of politics

The report emphasizes that in future 30 to 50 percent of the earth's surface will have to be made available for natural areas.

Nature could use these spaces to absorb CO2 in the future and adapt to global warming.

Humans could still use these ecosystems, but only in a sustainable coexistence of humans and nature.

"This way of thinking hasn't really arrived in politics yet," Pörtner told journalists.

War in Russia endangers climate protection efforts

A new danger is currently emanating from the Ukraine conflict with Russia.

"This conflict feels like it has fallen out of time when you consider the existential needs humanity actually has in the context of the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss." of the consequences of climate change and for adaptation measures.

According to the report, the costs for this were underestimated.

Going forward, governments will have to spend increasing amounts of money to mitigate the effects of droughts, floods and heat waves.

In Ahr alone, damage amounted to 30 billion euros.

Climate researchers call for far-reaching measures

Asia, Africa, Latin America, small island states and the Arctic are particularly affected by climate change.

But large cities will also be overwhelmed by heat waves in the future.

Fundamental social changes are therefore necessary.

The energy must be clean, the throwaway mentality must be eliminated.

Cities and agriculture must be made sustainable and mobility must be changed: more cycling instead of driving, more train travel instead of flying.

The climate researcher and co-author Daniela Schmidt warned that it is important to take the entire population with you.

In the poorer countries, this can only be partially implemented, which is why industrialized countries want to make around 90 billion euros available to developing countries from 2020 onwards.

According to Professor Jörg Birkmann from the University of Stuttgart, however, this is wishful thinking,

European Commission: Act “Faster, smarter and more systematically” on climate change

“People, planet and prosperity are vulnerable to climate change.

Therefore, we must prevent what we cannot adapt to and adapt to what we cannot prevent.

And we have to do this faster, smarter and more systematically,” writes the European Commission in its communication on the new EU strategy for adapting to climate change of February 24, 2021.