Impacts of climate change will be "severe, pervasive and irreversible" says new IPCC report
Mon 31 March 2014
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The impacts of global warming are likely to be "severe, pervasive and irreversible" according to a new report by the United Nations. Scientists and officials meeting meeting in Japan for the publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) latest report say the document is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the impacts of climate change on the world.
Speaking as the report was published, Rajendra Pachauri Chairman of the IPCC said: "Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change”.
The report says that some impacts of climate change include a higher risk of flooding and changes to crop yields and water availability. It says that humans may be able to adapt to some of these changes, but only within limits. It says that our health, homes, food and safety are all likely to be threatened by rising temperatures.
The World, it says, is poorly prepared to deal with the risks from a changing climate. It also concludes that there are opportunities to respond to such risks, though the risks will be difficult to manage with high levels of warming.
Entitled "Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability", from Working Group II of the IPCC, details the impacts of climate change to date, the future risks from a changing climate, and the opportunities for effective action to reduce risks. A total of 309 coordinating lead authors, lead authors, and review editors, drawn from 70 countries, were selected to produce the report. They enlisted the help of 436 contributing authors, and a total of 1,729 expert and government reviewers.
The report concludes that responding to climate change involves making choices about risks in a changing world. The nature of the risks of climate change is increasingly clear, though, the report says, climate change will also continue to produce surprises. It identifies vulnerable people, industries, and ecosystems around the world. It finds that risk from a changing climate comes from lack of preparedness and exposure (people or assets in harm’s way) overlapping with hazards (triggering climate events or trends). Each of these three components can be a target for smart actions to decrease risk.
The report was agreed after almost a week of intense discussions in Yokohama. It is the second in a series from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) due out this year that outlines the causes, effects and solutions to climate change.
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