Time is up: Experts warn of how fossil fuels are accelerating climate disaster

Last report Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) That is the final. To achieve the target of 1.5 or 20 Celsius, it is necessary to control greenhouse gas emissions in the shortest possible time.. However, this situation would not be possible if governments maintained or encouraged the use of fossil fuels. Based on this horizon, experts have outlined other options. Based on the fact that one of them By 2025, emissions will peak, which will fall sharply in 2050.

In numbers, global warming is already showing its effects. According to United Nations (UN), More than 30 million people have been displaced by the effects of climate change and the damage caused by extreme weather events is seen almost daily.. For this reason, too, the latest document can be summarized, given the fact that the parameters established in the Paris Agreement will not be reached, but will end up in two and a half times more warming than planned. Single word: final.

“Deep and, in most cases, immediate reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors”, The experts pointed out while pointing out what the next steps of the nations of the world should be to reach the established limit. Currently, the planet has already recorded a warming of more than 1.1 C, and it continues to rise. The main greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, although experts point out that methane should be reduced by a third over the next 10 years.

If this trend continues, by the end of this century, the temperature will have risen to 2.8 degrees Celsius. A number that will have an impact not only on extreme natural disasters (droughts, floods, heat waves, fires) but also on biodiversity loss and extinction. A scenario that “completes the picture of the climate crisis facing humanity”.

For this reason, Experts have shown three scenarios for ever-decreasing greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2019 and their relationship with rising temperatures:

– Emissions should drop to 27% by 2030 and 63% by 2050 so that temperatures do not exceed 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

– It will not exceed 1.5 C, they should decrease to 43% by 2030 and 84% by 2050.

– Severe increase, peak and decrease: The third option is to exceed 1.5 C in 2025, a sharp decline of 23% in 2030 and a 75% decrease in 2050.

Fossil fuels that attract attention

With regard to the consumption of fossil fuels, the numbers are clear: if it is 1.5 degrees, the global use of coal by 2050 should be 100% lower compared to 2019, while oil consumption should be reduced. 60% and gas 70%.

Another point put forward by IPCC experts is the techniques for capturing carbon dioxide. Although they make it clear that these tools do not change or compensate for the use of fossil fuels. Because, although they can help achieve this goal, in the words of scientists, they are still expensive and marginal. “They cannot fully compensate for the recession active in other sectors,” the scientists warned.

“It’s time to stop burning our planet and start investing in a lot of renewable energy around us.”, He said about this Antonio Guterres, UN. He stressed that between 2010 and 2019, the cost of renewable energy will fall, with experts pointing out that the cost of solar power generation has dropped by 85%, wind power by 55% and lithium batteries by 85%. %

Guterres pointed out that subsidies for fossil fuels currently affected by Russia’s occupation of Ukraine should be avoided and changed. “The elimination of fossil fuel subsidies will reduce emissions, improve government revenue and macroeconomic performance, and create other environmental and sustainable development benefits.”, Confirms the documentation provided by the IPCC, however, acknowledges that in the short term,“ adverse distribution effects ”may be detected in the most vulnerable. Therefore, they propose to establish “redistribution of saved income” measures.

“Renewable energy powered systems are increasingly viable”, They assured from the IPCC and pointed out that” although systematic, technological, economic, regulatory and social challenges persist, various systematic solutions have been developed to accommodate the large share of renewable energy in the energy system. “

Another point mentioned in this report is the need to abandon the use of fossil fuels for transportation.. “Electric vehicles powered by low emissions offer the greatest decarbonization capacity for land transportAs they say, if the goal is to raise the planet’s temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius, carbon dioxide emissions from the sector should fall by 59% by 2050, while at 2 degrees Celsius they should go back to 29%.

“The global economic benefit of controlling global warming to 2 degrees is greater than the cost of mitigation in most of the literature reviewed.“While the current path of development could accelerate the mitigation of behavioral, spatial, economic and social barriers,” he said.

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