Fight to keep global heating under 1.5 degrees Celsius reached 'now or never' territory: IPCC

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, April 5

Welcoming the latest IPCC report, India on Tuesday said it underlines the need for deep and urgent global emissions reduction and justifies its emphasis on equity at all scales in climate action and sustainable development.

“We welcome it,” said Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, adding that the report also fully supported India’s view on the necessity of public finance for developing countries and the need for scale, scope and speed in climate finance.

Sounding an ominous warning, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III report ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change’ released on Monday evening said that the fight to keep global heating under 1.5 degrees Celsius had reached “now or never” territory,

In 2010-2019, the average annual global greenhouse gas emissions were at their highest levels in human history, according to the IPCC.

Urgent climate action is critical to sustainable development, the mitigation action needs to be taken now to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, said the report by the world’s leading climate scientists. It said that emissions can be halved by 2030 with major transitions in the energy sector, including a substantial reduction in fossil fuel use.

This will involve a substantial reduction in fossil fuel use, widespread electrification, improved energy efficiency, and use of alternative fuels (such as hydrogen), it added.

All unabated coal-fired power plants need to be shuttered by 2050 if the world is to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 Celsius,” it said.

At the same time, there is also increasing evidence of climate action.

While emissions in the last decade were the highest in human history, many emissions reduction opportunities are available at low cost, and emission reductions and development can both be realised by shifting development pathways, as per IPCC scientists.