The Irish Times view on IPCC climate report: slim hope amid the gloom

Citizens across the world are punch drunk from report after report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Its latest verdict on the outlook for the Earth, including a shocking outline of human-induced damage, provides little comfort. However, its framework of how governments can act to avoid the worst consequences of rising temperatures must now become the over-riding focus.

The onus on governments is to take action to adapt to inevitable impacts and to aggressively slash emissions

Nonetheless, the IPCC's assessment of impacts on humanity and nature confirms that dangers are mounting so rapidly they could soon overwhelm the ability of both nature and mankind to adapt unless greenhouse gas emissions are quickly reduced. Unfortunately, Ireland is far off a position where sufficient cuts are happening within its jurisdiction. Separately, based on IPCC global predictions, there is every likelihood Ireland would fail a climate resilience test on its preparedness and ability to withstand upcoming threats that cannot be avoided. The vulnerability of our major cities and much of our coastline are likely to stand out in such an evaluation.

The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal; climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. “Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future,” the IPCC warns.

Climate and biodiversity crises are tightly interlinked, and can amplify one another’s effects. The resulting impacts will continue to increase for decades until emissions are reduced to zero. However, it also means there is opportunity to tackle both challenges at once by protecting and restoring natural ecosystems. This is not vague hope; it is the mechanism for tangible progress that must be grasped.

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The onus on governments is to take action to adapt to inevitable impacts and to aggressively slash emissions. This is in a scenario of weather extremes occurring simultaneously, “causing cascading impacts that are increasingly difficult to manage”. Issues of justice and equity are raised also, particularly how wealthy countries live up to their responsibilities by increasing support for developing countries for “loss and damage” that has been inflicted upon them by growth-obsessed societies and their rampant fossil fuel use.

Repeated promises to deliver financing have been made at UN climate summits. At Cop26 in Glasgow, Ireland led efforts to finally put in place a financial mechanism to resolve the loss and damage issue with substantial supports in the form of grants rather than loans. The IPCC report, infused with a new can-do approach, provides the evidence that such supports are critical. They can also help secure new momentum on global climate action while protecting the wellbeing of billions of people and the places where they live.