For over 30 years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been synthesisng the state of scientific knowledge on climate change – an updated report on the situation was published this week.
Human influence is "unequivocally" responsible for climate change, with average temperatures already having risen by 1.1°C compared to the pre-industrial era.
This leads to extreme weather events, which are primarily dangerous to humans, such as heatwaves, storms, or heavy precipitation events.
The ongoing extinction of species is being immensely exacerbated by climate change – it is becoming the primary driver, ahead of overexploitation through fishing or intensive agriculture.
The 1.5°C limit established in the 2015 Paris Agreement is by no means arbitrary: above this level of warming, several regions of the world will become uninhabitable, either because temperatures will be acutely too high, or because of rising sea levels.
Although the Bundestag has ratified (and thus bindingly accepted) this target, we are currently observing that political efforts in particular are insufficient for us to remain below 1.5°C. Time is running out – decisive course corrections must be implemented by the end of the decade, within the next seven years.
What must be done to still achieve this? Here, too, the IPCC is clear and unambiguous: a rapid end to the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, or oil. This requires an accelerated transition in energy and mobility, as well as changes in the food and construction sectors.
Currently, global trends are heading in the opposite direction, with CO2 emissions increasing year-on-year instead of decreasing. A slow, moderate transition is no longer sufficient; current measures are several decades too late. Today, deep and far-reaching transformations are necessary and indispensable.
It must be considered that calls for "adaptation" are short-sighted: even if humans construct higher dykes, drainage channels, and widespread air conditioning systems, this will not assist corals, nor will it aid other animals or plants.
Continuing with "business as usual" cannot succeed – and in truth, everyone is aware of this. Even those blocking progress, who claim to oppose changes for economic reasons, are deceiving themselves and their audiences. Although the transitions will require significant financial investment, a world with a temperature increase of 2°C or more above pre-industrial levels will incur vastly higher costs, making it clearly the far worse "investment" from an economic perspective.
The concluding remarks of the IPCC, however, offer hope:
"Rapid climate action can secure a liveable future for all."
We know enough.
The time to act is now.
Source: Sixth Assessment Report IPCC, https://www.ipcc.ch/ar6-syr/
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