Climate change threatens social stability: IPCC Chairman
Thursday, 3 April 2014 00:00
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REUTERS: A new UN report on climate change approved on Monday (31 March) said much of world remains unprepared for the mounting threats of the changing climate.
The report, by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), will help governments prepare a deal to cut rising greenhouse gas emissions, mainly by shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energies, at a summit in Paris in late 2015.
The report emphasises the risks, and portrays cuts to greenhouse gas emissions as an insurance policy for the planet.
IPCC chairman Rajnedra Pachauri said the findings of the report were “profound” and that the world should not neglect them as climate change could have “implications for human security”. “We have reason to believe that if the world doesn’t do anything about mitigating the emissions of greenhouse gases, and the extent of climate change continues to increase, then the very social stability of human systems could be at stake,” Pachauri said after presenting the approved report. The report predicts a rise in global temperatures of between 0.3 and 4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5 to 8.6 Fahrenheit) and a rise of up to 82 cm (32 inches) in sea levels by the late 21st century due to melting ice and expansion of water as it warms, threatening coastal cities from Shanghai to San Francisco.
The risks range from death to disrupted livelihoods in low-lying coastal zones and small islands, due to storm surges, coastal flooding, and sea-level rise, the report said.
Immediate action is needed, says the report, which follows a warning that humans are probably responsible for global warming thought to cause droughts, colder weather and rising sea levels.
