REMI
climate resilience

Quest to curb climate crisis more urgent than ever

Major report from IPCC finds window of opportunity to limit hazards closing fast
Tuesday, March 21, 2023

The newest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released on March 20, warns that the global average temperature is expected to reach 1.5 C during the first half of the 2030s and that maintaining this threshold, as nations committed to in the 2015 Paris Accord, is becoming even more challenging with the ongoing rise of greenhouse gas emissions.

The synthesis report braids together major findings on the state of climate change from the IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle. As it lays out, emissions should already be declining. By 2030, they will need to be slashed by nearly half as every increment of global warming, from 1.5 C and higher at 2 C, will escalate the hefty list of hazards, from heat-related events and food insecurity, to flooding and biodiversity loss.

Every region across the Earth is already on track to face increased climate hazards for the near term (defined as the period until 2040). So far, the global surface temperature has reached 1.1 C since 1880, with fossil fuels being a primary factor, alongside unsustainable energy and land use.

To limit warming to 1.5 C and deter potential fallout, contributors to the report, which concludes the AR6 cycle, say efforts now require “deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors.”

The building industry—and other sectors, including electricity and transport —figures as a primary player on this front. Climate resilient development is a solution that integrates adaptation and mitigation across the world scale, for example, low-carbon electrification, walking, cycling and public transportation to improve air quality and employment opportunities, and clean energy and technologies to improve health.

Although, all of this is becoming progressively more difficult as warming increases, the report urges, adding, “there is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”

In response, Canada affirmed its role on the international stage this week, as Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault pointed to increasing ambition around climate action.

“We know that Canada is warming at twice the average global rate, with even higher rates in the north,” he said. “We’ve moved from modelling to experiencing devastating real-world consequences on communities and the economy. It is critical that we continue to take rapid and ambitious action to fight climate change.”

For the next five years, researchers believe that choices must be socially acceptable, grounded in diverse values: scientific knowledge, Indigenous knowledge and local knowledge.

“The greatest gains in wellbeing could come from prioritizing climate risk reduction for low-income and marginalised communities, including people living in informal settlements,” Christopher Trisos, one of the report’s authors, said in a statement. “Accelerated climate action will only come about if there is a many-fold increase in finance. Insufficient and misaligned finance is holding back progress.”

Minister Guilbeault reiterated how Canada has doubled its climate finance commitment to $5.3 billion over the next five years for developing countries to fight climate change and protect biodiversity.

Following the COP27 climate talks last year, Canada also announced its first-ever National Adaptation Strategy, with actionable targets to protect against extreme weather events. Also introduced in 2022, the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan outlines goals for every sector to cumulatively reach Canada’s emissions reduction target of 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. The plan envisions a 38-megatonne cut in the output of carbon dioxide equivalent (C02e) from the buildings sector as a key milestone.

The last Synthesis Report of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Cycle, can be found here

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