Discussion Group 3: IPCC Climate Report

Is It Too Late to Prevent Climate Catastrophe?

The 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its most recent climate assessment report this month.

Bottom line: Although is not too late to prevent the most catastrophic effects of global warming, the only path to avoiding the worst requires immediate, massive, and aggressive action by the world’s worst carbon polluters, including but not limited to the United States. 

Unfortunately, our political will seems to be lacking. The additional complication of Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine has also reduced the likelihood of success.  Although President Biden’s administration has proposed potentially effective climate policies, the president recently requested that the oil and gas industry increase drilling on public lands to allow the countries of Europe to wean themselves off Russian oil and gas, revenues of which are financing the war.

Here is an assessment from The Climate Reality Project:

“THREE YEARS TO TURN THE CORNER ON FOSSIL FUELS

The toplines of the report will not surprise anyone who’s been paying attention to the headlines on climate recently. In a nutshell, we have just three years – not decades – to reach the highest level of greenhouse gas emissions (aka “peak emissions”) planetwide before rapidly reducing fossil fuel use and reaching net-zero levels by 2050.

Three years, that is, to have any reasonable chance at holding global warming to something like 1.5 degrees Celsius, the danger line after which climate-fueled destruction threatens to go from “quite bad” to “downright Biblical” with projected human suffering growing exponentially with every fraction of a degree above 1.5.

The stakes are huge. Miss this goal and emissions keep rising, which the report estimates could lead to warming of 2.2–3.5 degrees (Celsius) by 2100.”

• 1.    Do you think it is too late, or could the report be overly pessimistic?
• 2.    What can individuals do?
• 3.    What can nations do?
• 4.    What can the international community do?