IPCC report calling for tough measures to mitigate climate change is a warning; it is up to Governments to act

The sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) peer review report released by the United Nations yesterday, like the previous one released in 2014, impressed upon countries all over the world the seriousness of the challenge surrounding climate change, while also delineating the scale of actions required to tackle it. The most alarming of all warnings, however, was the projection of a 1.5 degree Celsius global temperature rise (from pre-industrial levels) by as early as 2030 and latest by 2052. The IPCC report iterated that while the 20th century earth was one degree Celsius warmer than previous centuries, it is now well on track towards a three to four degree Celsius rise. The catastrophic consequences of such climate change will impact all — developed and developing countries, human beings and animals, rich and poor, marine life, vegetation and forests. As the report makes amply clear, all nations have failed to move against global warming in any substantive way. Negotiations and recriminations are still the order of the day instead of concerted global action on climate change. Four years ago, when the fifth IPCC report was released, it had successfully spurred countries into action which culminated in the Paris Agreement in 2015 wherein nearly all countries barring the United States vowed to not let the global average temperature rise two degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The withdrawal of the US from the Agreement dented this hope fatally. Consequently, the situation today is that global warming has become the monster the world can no longer tame; indeed, the past three years have been the hottest globally. Freak climatic events such as an acute scarcity of water, irregularity in the appearance of monsoons, delayed winters, prolonged summers, rise in sea levels and the spread of vector-borne diseases have become routine. All of this means that existing inequalities will only rise further and make it all the more difficult for the poor to move out of poverty. The situation is all the more precarious for India, heavily populated as it is, with extreme heat waves such as the in one in 2015 that took a massive toll of lives in danger of becoming an annual feature, according to the IPCC.

There should be no running away from the fact that scales are loaded against those who are the biggest polluters, and that includes the US, India, China, Japan and Russia. All major developed and developing countries have a responsibility to take measures to reduce CGH emissions, shift the focus from fossil fuels towards more renewable forms of energy and mitigate high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In doing so, they must also help the developed nations by sharing technology and suggesting them ways to mitigate the crisis.