The Most Critical Decade for Climate Solutions
The recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Synthesis Report underscores that immediate action is imperative. We must reverse course within a rapidly closing window to secure a livable future. This is the most critical decade for climate solutions.
As I said on Advancements, “scientists have set a warming threshold whereby we can sustain current life and ecological systems – but say beyond that there is significant risk of catastrophic impacts, such as life-threatening heat waves and food and water scarcity. We must limit the earth’s warming to no more than 1.5⁰C above pre-industrial levels – that is a primary goal of the Paris Agreement.”
Meeting that goal will require a 43% reduction from 2019 baseline greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. Human activity has already warmed the planet by 1.1⁰C and caused unprecedented change – some of which is permanent and cannot be remediated by adaptation measures. The past decade was the warmest on record in history and as the United Nations reported, we are now at a global pivot point (COP 27: Global Pivot Point).
The world’s leading climate scientists have been warning us for more than 35 years. The IPCC was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988. It was endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly and tasked with preparing a comprehensive review on climate change, specifically recommendations on (1) the state of knowledge on the science, (2) the social and economic impacts, and (3) potential response strategies for inclusion in a future, to-be-established international convention.
IPCC issued its first report in 1990, which served as the basis for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNCFCCC) and the first Conference of the Parties (COP) held in Berlin in 1995. IPCC issued a supplement in 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The Earth Summit was the watershed U.N. Conference on Environment and Development meeting which opened for signature the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity – both legally binding international agreements – and which promulgated the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Agenda 21 and the Forest Principles.
Those were heady days in the world of international policy, and we felt the import of a global platform for biological diversity, environmental protection and climate change. Still, there was significant pushback on the science of climate change, and it was an uphill battle for a longtime. While the attack on the science has lessened in the intervening decades given the proven meteorological changes and the devastating impacts on the natural world, the challenge has shapeshifted.
The recent groundswell on climate and ESG has galvanized many of our public and private sector leaders to action. However, it may not be enough to avert the crisis. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres poignantly referred to the latest IPCC report as, “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.”
We need collaborative and comprehensive solutions across all sectors if we are going to effectively reduce GHGs and achieve climate goals. What we do – or fail to do – in the next seven years will determine our collective future.