Climate ‘Countdown Clock’ Report Released To Grab World Attention

AFP/APP

Paris: We cannot afford to wait for the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report in this “decade of action”. If we are flying blind without information, we’re going to make bad choices, said Maynooth University Ireland Physical Geography Professor Peter Thorne.

Top scientists have launched a yearly report series to plug knowledge gaps ahead of crunch climate talks, with their global warming “countdown clock” vying for the attention of world leaders and ordinary citizens alike.

The UN scientific advisory panel in charge of summarising climate change research has produced comprehensive and authoritative assessment reports in cycles of five to seven years since 1988.

But the lengthy time lag between its gargantuan reports—drawing from studies that may already have been superseded by new findings—has sparked concern that backward-looking research is less useful for policymakers responding to a fast-moving climate emergency.

Therefore, 50 scientists, many of whom are lead IPCC contributors, teamed up to produce a paper on climate change in 2022 to update key metrics from the IPCC report.

The IPCC has warned the world is on course to cross the key warming threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in the early 2030s.

In a year marked by devastating extreme weather events, Dubai will host key UN negotiations starting on November 30 aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and helping the developing world deal with climate impacts.