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There are three things that we in the Caribbean must get behind. Here’s why and how urgently this action is needed.
Working Group III (WG3) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released, on April 4, the third of a trilogy of reports which together form the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). WG3’s report is focused on what we can do to decrease or moderate global warming and titled Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change.
The 2913-page report is the culmination of global effort by 278 scientific authors and 65 governments (41 per cent of which are developing countries) to reach consensus based on more than 18,000 scientific papers and the resolution of more than 59,000 review comments on the scientific, technological, environmental, economic and social aspects of mitigation of climate change.
This report complements all the previous work, including the reports by Working Groups I (the State of Global Warming) and II (Climate Risk and Adaptation), which were published in November 2021 and March 2022 respectively. This third report will be followed later this year by a synthesis report.
In introducing the report last Monday, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres did not mince his words and left no doubt about what the "verdict of the jury" is: “We are on fast track to climate disaster.”
This will be an unlivable world that will include major cities under water, heatwaves, and terrifying disasters.
On paper the world’s governments have committed to doing all that is possible to limit the earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
The reality of what is currently happening is very different. We are on track towards a world that will be 3.2 degrees warmer than in pre-industrial times – so we are on track to overshoot our target by more than 100 per cent.
The biggest problem is the so-called “emissions gap,” which is already large and growing. Every government knows that the world needs to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 45 per cent over the next eight years to have a chance to stay within the 1.5 degree limit.
Instead, based on the current pledges we are increasing emissions by 14 per cent this decade.
What makes this even worse, Mr Guterres points out, is that “high emitting governments and corporations are not just turning a blind eye – they are adding fuel to the flame!…Some governments are saying one thing, but doing another. Simply put, they are lying.”
The very few with vested interests in historical investments in fossil fuel are “choking the world,” when there are cheaper, renewable solutions that provide green jobs, energy security and greater price stability.
Countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels at this time, and not the young and vocal climate activists, are the truly dangerous radicals.
“Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness,” says Mr Guterres.
We are in a full-blown “climate emergency” a
