UN: 'Massive shift' needed on energy

A UN report on climate change is expected to call for a trebling of the planet's use of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.
The report is also expected to argue that the trend of increased carbon emissions can only be reversed if a "massive shift" in energy use is made.
Scientists will also cautiously endorse a shift to natural gas an alternative to carbon intensive sources.
The report will be released on Sunday at a press conference in Berlin.
It will argue that if significant action isn't taken by 2030, global temperatures could rise by more than 2 degrees C.
Such a rise in temperature would be highly dangerous, the report will argue.

What is the IPCC?

In its own words, the IPCC is there "to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts".
The offspring of two UN bodies, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, it has issuedfour heavyweight assessment reports to date on the state of the climate.
These are commissioned by the governments of 195 countries, essentially the entire world. These reports are critical in informing the climate policies adopted by these governments.
The IPCC itself is a small organisation, run from Geneva with a full time staff of 12. All the scientists who are involved with it do so on a voluntary basis.
Sunday's report will focus on instructing governments and organisations on how to take action to avoid dangerous climatic change.
However, some developing countries have argued that the costs associated with switching energy sources should be borne proportionately by all.
The report will criticise the rising use of coal and other fossil fuels among developing countries.
It will also argue that the technology already exists for more cleaner, more efficient energy sources.
'Severe and irreversible'
This is the third in a series of highly-anticipated reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The first report argued that human action was the primary cause of global warming.
The second, released in March, outlined the effects of climate change on individuals and societies.
It argued that the impacts of global warming are likely to be "severe, pervasive and irreversible".
The three reports are part of the Fifth Assessment Report, a major study of the effects and causes of climate change.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27007486

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Climate Change Skeptics Lash Out At New Global Warming ‘Hiatus’ Study That Questions Ocean Temperature Measurements

Image
Share on facebook 227 Share on twitter 22 Share on linkedin Share on google_plusone_share More Sharing Services 128 An estimated 35,000 walruses are pictured crowding on a beach near Point Lay, Alaska, because of a lack of sea ice in this September 2014 photo. A study published June 4, 2015, refuting the notion that the Earth’s temperature rise has been interrupted since 1998 was lambasted by the usual skeptics and their supporters.  Corey Accardo/NOAA/NMFS/AFSC/NMML/Via Reuters A new climate study was released Thursday that refutes the claim that there’s been a slowdown, or “hiatus” in the rate the Earth is warming, but some conservative-leaning media sites skipped covering the study itself and chose instead to promote the views of the minority of climate change deniers, such as  Christopher Monckton . For example, the Drudge Report, an immensely popular headline aggregator operated by conservative Matthew Drudge, promi...
Read more

Global warming could drive world temperatures up 7 degrees by 2100

Another piece of the  global warming  puzzle has been revealed. According to new research published on Jan. 1 in the journal  Nature , increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will reduce the number of clouds that form. This, in turn, will cause temperatures to rise much higher than previous climate-change models have predicted. According to this new research, global temperatures could rise 4 degrees Celsius or 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100, and twice that by 2200. Lead researcher Steven Sherwood at the Climate Change Research Center at Australia's University of New South Wales, told  The Guardian  that this level of climate change would be "catastrophic rather than simply dangerous. For example, it would make life difficult, if not impossible, in much of the tropics, and would guarantee the eventual melting of the Greenland ice sheet and some of the Antarctic ice sheet."   In a  news release , Sherwood said this new...
Read more

Why Is Critical Technology to Stop Global Warming Stalled?

Image
Pumping CO2 underground can help fight climate change but remains untested for the most part March 12, 2015  | By  Howard J. Herzog  and  The Conversation US Injection of CO2 and other gases into geological formations has been practiced for many years.  Credit:  SaskPower There are many uncertainties with respect to global climate change, but there is one thing about which I have no doubts: we will not solve climate change by running out of fossil fuels. Understanding this leads to three posible pathways we can follow to lower greenhouse gas concentrations, and explains why I’ve chosen to focus  my research  on carbon capture and storage. We can: continue to burn fossil fuels with little or no restrictions. We will blow by atmospheric CO2 concentrations of 450 parts per million (ppm), the level many scientists think is dangerous to exceed, and we will keep on going. We have enough fossil fuels to easily go above 1,000 ppm. The impac...
Read more