UN Climate Report: 'Code Red for Humanity'

This week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report which addressed the latest findings on the climate system and its evolution. Combining the recent advances with observations at a global and regional scale, the report shows the current physical understanding of climate change.

Over 230 scientists from around the world contributed to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, creating the science community’s most significant report on the climate. By synthesizing over 14,000 research works, the experts created a summary of the latest scientific projections, models, and data about the past. Thus, the report serves as an update of how the climate and our knowledge have changed over the last eight years.

In this publication, the IPCC confirms the negative impact of human influence on the climate. Humans are indisputably responsible for the warming of the Earth’s surface. Although we could improve the situation by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, some damage is already permanent.

“Global warming is dangerously close to spiraling out of control,” said a U.N. climate panel as a warning for the climate consequences we will have to face in the years to come.

Additionally, the report states that the future rises in temperature depend on the level of upcoming emissions. As the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere grow at an increasing rate, our impact on the Earth’s climate becomes more significant. According to scientific findings, human activities have been responsible for 1.1°C of warming since 1850-1900. This number is expected to reach 1.5°C in the next 20 years.

Unless we act fast, the damage will be irreversible. Therefore, we must meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrialized conditions. For this to happen, greenhouse gasses need to be reduced rapidly and at a large scale.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed this concern and called the report a “code red for humanity.” He said that “the alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.”

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