RANDI DAVIS
ON AUGUST 9, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the foremost scientific assessment body on climate change, released its scientific findings that revealed dire warnings of an increasingly warming planet. Against this background, the UN Secretary General rattled world leaders at the UN General Assembly when he opened the general debate by decrying that the world was on the 'edge of an abyss' and unfortunately moving in the wrong direction. 'The disruption to our climate and our planet is already worse than we thought, and it is moving faster than predicted.' he noted.
According to the latest report of the IPCC, despite a temporary blip in 2020, due to the covid19 pandemic, we remain far from the emission reduction targets set by the Paris Agreement aimed at slowing global warming. In fact, with the current rate of emissions and warming, we are likely to reach the 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming set by the Paris Agreement for the end of this century between the end of this decade and 2050.
This will trigger severe climate change, a future reality with which we are all too familiar here in the Caribbean, and in this projected scenario will make life in the region highly challenging. At the current rate of warming we will reach three to four degrees rise by the end of the century.
We know that nobody is immune to the destructive effects of climate change, not least of which are small-island states, which face rising sea levels, eroding coastlines, increased flooding and the destruction of land livelihoods and crops. This year alone the world experienced record-setting catastrophic climate events from fires to floods and hurricanes, with greater intensity and frequency than ever before.
Considering that a warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius is likely to destroy between 70 to 90 per cent of coral reefs, and a warming of two degrees Celsius will virtually decimate all coral reefs, and all of this possible within a few decades, the implications for the Caribbean remain gravely concerning.
This is why the stakes are so high in Glasgow next month where countries will come together to agree on strong climate pledges or nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Over 130 world leaders are expected to attend COP26 and they are expected to commit to and act on more ambitious 2030 emission reduction targets - that align with reaching net zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century. Importantly, they are also expected to direct the trillions of dollars of post-covid19 recovery investments towards building a greener, decarbonised global economy.
While meeting the goals set in the Paris Agreement will be no easy task as the world emerges from the chaos left by covid19, the pandemic did provide an opportunity for the world to pause its development trajectory, pivot and accelerate in an altogether different direction - a direction focused on accelerating the phasing out of fossil fuels, rapidly curtailing deforestation and sp
