MANILA, Philippines — A landmark United Nations report that provided stark warnings about how the climate crisis is affecting every region of the planet and how devastating the impacts might be sends the message that world leaders must step up and act with urgency.
This is the call of green groups in the Philippines following the release of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said that global warming of 1.1 degrees Celsius has brought weather disasters exacerbated by climate change in different regions of the world.
Related Stories
Rising seas, storms, droughts and other extreme weather events will become more severe with the further warming of the planet.
“The report details the science of what we already know from experience about the changing climate system and the consequent devastation, especially for those communities and sectors that are most vulnerable and at the frontline of impacts,” said Yeb Saño, Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director.
“It also shows us that, unless world leaders make their commitments as strong as the science requires, we will continue to experience increasing extreme weather events and every year will be record-breaking for unprecedented storms, rainfall, heatwaves, droughts, flooding and worsening conditions, such as we are experiencing now,” he added.
READ: World shudders at 'terrifying' UN climate report
Urgent actions
The IPCC said it is “unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.”
The report also found that averaged over the next two decades, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming.
“At this point, with all the scientific evidence we have at our disposal, doing nothing means being complicit in burning our planet down,” said Nazrin Castro, manager of The Climate Reality Project Philippines.
Castro said the release of the report should compel the Philippine government to urgently complete the implementation plan for the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement.
The government committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 75% from 2020 to 2030. Of the target, only 2.71% is unconditional, which means it will be undertaken without international funding and assistance.
Khevin Yu, Greenpeace Philippines campaigner, renewed the call for the Duterte administration to formulate a coherent national strategy to address the climate crisis, and hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their share of responsibility for the climate crisis.
“In the Philippines, our government should not be content with endless negotiations. Instead, the government must act with urgency to facilitate the country’s transition to a low carbon and fossil fuel-free society,” Yu said.
Aside from just transition away from fossil fuels, there must be massive ecological restoration and replacement of high carbon-emitting industries and technologies, the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development said.
It added that industrialized countries should meet their full obligations to deliver climate finance to southern nations.
Sliver of hope
According to the IPCC, strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases would limit climate change.
Keeping the 1.5°C threshold in play is still within reach and urgent, environmental campaigners stressed.
“However, it needs to be said just as clearly that keeping to 1.5°C of global warming will still pose existential risks to millions of Filipinos,” said Denise Fontanilla, associate for policy advocacy of the Manila-based NGO Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities.
“The Philippines should pursue sustainable development more aggressively rather than just reducing emissions as the overarching goal. Adaptation must remain as the country’s climate response anchor, with resilience guiding the country’s long-term decarbonization agenda,” she added.
The IPCC report was released 90 days before the pivotal COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, adding pressure on the discussions on how to accelerate nations’ action in line with the 1.5°C warming limit set by the Paris Agreement.
Reports detailing the effects of climate change on humans as well as the strategies to mitigate its impacts will be covered by the remaining parts of the IPCC’s sixth major assessment of climate science. — with report from Agence France-Presse