(Reuters) – The United Nations on Monday published a report that delivered dramatic warnings about the effect of human-induced climate change on the planet – and how much worse it could get.
Here are some excerpts from early reactions:
U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES:
“Today’s IPCC Working Group 1 Report is a ‘Code Red’ for humanity … This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet.”
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON:
“We know what must be done to limit global warming – consign coal to history and shift to clean energy sources, protect nature and provide climate finance for countries on the frontline.”
U.S. SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE JOHN KERRY:
“The impacts of the climate crisis, from extreme heat to wildfires to intense rainfall and flooding, will only continue to intensify unless we choose another course for ourselves and generations to come.”
DIANN BLACK-LAYNE, AMBASSADOR OF ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, LEAD CLIMATE NEGOTIATOR FOR THE ALLIANCE OF SMALL ISLAND STATES:
“If we keep warming to 1.5C, we are still facing half a metre of sea level rise. But if we stop warming from reaching 2C, we can avoid a long-term three metres of sea level rise. That is our very future, right there.”
MOHAMED NASHEED, AMBASSADOR FOR THE CLIMATE VULNERABLE FORUM OF 48 COUNTRIES, AND FORMER MALDIVES PRESIDENT:
“We are paying with our lives for the carbon someone else emitted. We will take measures soon to begin to address this injustice, which we cannot merely accept.”
PAULO ARTAXO, AN IPCC LEAD AUTHOR AND ENVIRONMENTAL PHYSICIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SAO PAULO:
“We are damaging the climate in such a way for the next generations that this will certainly make the socioeconomic difficulties in the future much, much worse than in our generation …
“My personal opinion is that it will be impossible to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5 degrees.”
HELENE HEWITT, A COORDINATING IPCC LEAD AUTHOR AND OCEAN MODELLING GROUP LEADER AT THE UK MET OFFICE’S HADLEY CENTRE:
“We might see a practically sea-ice-free Arctic for the first time by 2050 – under all scenarios.”
HELEN MOUNTFORD, VICE PRESIDENT OF CLIMATE AND ECONOMICS, WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE:
“If this IPCC report doesn’t shock you into action, it should. The report paints a very sobering picture of the unforgiving, unimaginable world we have in store if our addiction to burning fossil fuels and destroying forests continues.”
KAISA KOSONEN, SENIOR POLITICAL ADVISER ON CLIMATE AND ENERGY, GREENPEACE:
“The IPCC has provided new, powerful means for everyone everywhere to hold the fossil fuel industry and governments directly responsible for the climate emergency.”
TERESA ANDERSON, CLIMATE POLICY COORDINATOR AT ACTIONAID INTERNATIONAL:
“Too many ‘net zero’ climate plans are being used to ‘greenwash’ pollution and business-as-usual.”
WAI-SHIN CHAN, GLOBAL HEAD OF ESG (ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE) RESEARCH AT HSBC BANK:
“Investors must use their influence to push decision makers to make the bold emission reductions required to limit the most severe consequences of climate change.”
(Reporting by Kate Abnett, Nina Chestney, Jake Spring; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
