The time to act is now
Climate change and IPCC report
We can achieve the Paris climate target of 1.5c global warming if governments act now, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its upcoming special report on global warming.
The report will be presented on Monday (8 October) in South Korea (15:00 CET). On Tuesday (9 October) EU Environment Ministers will discuss the findings, the same day that they discuss (and possibly adopt) their position on the CO2 reduction target for new cars by 2030. The report forms also an important moment towards the December COP24 UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland, were countries will discuss their national climate plans.
Bas Eickhout, climate policy spokesperson for the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, comments:
"The time to act in order to save the climate is now, otherwise the heatwave we saw this summer was just a taste of what's to come. The good news is that climate science confirms that it's still possible to keep global warming within 1.5c and limit the devastating effects of climate change, but we need political will. The depressing debate amongst EU Member States around reducing CO2 emissions from new cars shows just how difficult it will be to achieve this. The Council discussion next Tuesday on this issue will show how serious Germany and others take the scientific warnings of the IPCC."
"The European Commission has also serious work to do. The EU's climate targets for 2030 are still completely inadequate. We expect a proposal to increase those. And the European Commission must also prove that it is serious about the Paris climate targets in its strategy for a low-carbon economy, which is to be adopted in November. The IPCC-report will show that the EU has to be climate neutral by 2050 the latest. Without ambitious 2030 targets and an ambitious decarbonisation strategy the EU will have nothing in its pocket to make the COP24 in Katowice later this year a success."
