Limiting the level of global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is crucial to sustaining humankind and the world’s eco-system, said the World Meteorological Organization at a press briefing on Monday.
Petteri Taalas, the organization’s secretary general, made the remarks in Geneva in response to a report released on Monday which approved the 48th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) session which was held in South Korea’s western port city of Incheon last week.
The secretary general firstly pointed out that reducing the scale of climate change should be a key priority around the world. He said a series of catastrophic events which could destroy the ecological environment if temperatures rose by up to 2 degrees Celsius could be avoided if global warming was limited to rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
He added that in this case, millions of lives will be spared, as less ice will melt in the Arctic Ocean and the potentially disastrous rises in sea level will be smaller, while the precious coral reef will not die out as easily.
“What is the difference between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees (Celsius)? And one of the major issues is that there will be 420 million people less suffering because of climate change if we would be able to be limit the global warming to 1.5 degrees (Celsius) level. And we have certain areas in the world which are extremely sensitive, the small island states, the Mediterranean region and also Sub-Saharan Africa, which are always suffering and will suffer the most in the future,” said Taalas.
Taalas reiterated that in the report, limiting the warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius would require transitions in land, energy, industry and buildings to reduce the net emissions of CO2 by 45% in 2030 in comparison with 2010.
He also praised the efforts that China has made in its bid to reduce carbon emissions in recent years.
“There are also positive signs in the world. For example, China which is still the biggest emitter, they have been investing the most worldwide to renewable energy. And they see this transition as a business opportunity, for example, the solar technology that they have sold in the world,” he said.
In addition, Taalas emphasized that the promotion of renewable energy is hugely significant in the coming decade and stressed that the climate change issue should be jointly addressed by all people, governmental authorities and financial institutions.
The 728-page Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius was completed by 91 writers from 40 countries, and refers to over 6 000 scientific materials. It will be a key scientific input into the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which will be held in Poland in December.
