How to Address Climate Change, per the IPCC

A new report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says meeting the most aggressive target from the 2015 Paris Agreement – curbing global warming to 1.5ºC (2.7ºF) above pre-industrial levels – would require greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest.

📝 The deets: The IPCC’s report is the third chapter in a broader assessment of climate science. The previous two examined the causes and impacts of climate change, while this one focused on how to mitigate its effects.

• The report found average annual greenhouse gas emissions were at their highest levels in human history over the past decade – and even if all the climate-related policies that governments had put in place by the end of 2020 were fully implemented, the world would still warm by 3.2ºC this century.

🌬️☀️🔋 Reality check… The news isn’t all doom and gloom, though. The IPCC’s report cites the increasing affordability of renewable energy, noting decreases of up to 85% in the cost of solar, wind and batteries since 2010.

• But it does call for a "substantial reduction" in the use of fossil fuels in the near future. Low-carbon options like solar and wind would need to supply a majority of the world's energy by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5ºC, per the report; the two energy sources currently make up just over 10%.

💬 What they’re saying: “This is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies. We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree limit,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a video message accompanying the report.

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