Sec Gen'l Guterres UN
primary 3 22 ukraine war watershed
very good on quotes/branding/ metaphor
odd not target eg anenda 21 BS October 16, 2023, 2:47 PMavos stc?
context,
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/28/global_heat_climate_crisis_july_2023
new climate data show July is on track to become the hottest month in human history, with global temperatures rising to about 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above pre-industrial levels. On Thursday, the head of the World Meteorological Organization said, “Climate action is not a luxury but a must,” while U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres scolded world leaders over inaction on the climate.
Secretary-General António Guterres: “Climate change is here, it is terrifying, and it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived. The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable.”
The U.N.’s warning came as hundreds of wildfires fueled by record heat continued to burn out of control around the Mediterranean — in Algeria, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey.
In China, Typhoon Doksuri made landfall today in the southeastern Fujian province, sparking fires, downing power lines and shuttering schools and businesses. On Thursday, the storm lashed southern Taiwan after battering the northern Philippines, where it killed at least 39 people.
In more climate news, the Supreme Court has cleared the way for construction of the contested Mountain Valley Pipeline to resume. The court on Thursday lifted a halt on a section of the project that had been issued by a lower court earlier this month after a challenge by environmental groups.
https://www.axios.com/2023/01/18/davos-guterres-exxon-fossil-fuels-climate-change
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres slammed fossil fuel companies, singling out ExxonMobil, in a grim table-setting speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos Wednesday morning.
Why it matters:Addressing the world's elite, Guterres elevated the findings of a study published last week in the journal Science, which showed that Exxon's own climate research accurately predicted the pace and severity of global warming. (Exxon disputed the findings.)
- Despite that information, the study found, the company chose to publicly cast doubt on climate science findings, including UN-sponsored research, for decades.
What they're saying:"The science has been clear for decades. I’m not talking only about UN scientists, I’m talking even about fossil fuel scientists," Guterres said.
- “We learned last week that certain fossil fuel producers were fully aware in the 1970s that their core product was baking our planet. And just like the tobacco industry, they rode roughshod over their own science."
- "Some in big oil peddled the big lie.”
The big picture:Guterres' speech comes at a fraught time of simmering conflicts and a deadly pandemic.
- Powerful divides are getting harder to bridge, Guterres warned, and tackling climate change is caught up in this maelstrom.
The bottom line:Guterres implored political and business leaders to speed the transition away from fossil fuels and reject plans to expand fossil fuel production.
busted on cop 27 egypt
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/un-climate-champions-pr-brunswick-saudi-aramco/
UN climate campaign leaders are taking advice from a PR firm that works extensively for fossil fuel giants – including the world’s biggest oil company, Saudi Aramco.
The international public relations firm Brunswick has helped the UN’s “high-level climate champions” – a small but influential team led by the UK and Egypt, the hosts of COP26 and COP27 – to develop five UN-backed climate policies and campaigns.
One of these campaigns is Race to Zero, which encourages companies to rapidly reduce emissions, with its flagship initiative, Business Ambition for 1.5°C, calling on corporations to help limit global warming to that level.
But while advising the climate champions, and having signed up as a member of Race to Zero, Brunswick also spins for fossil fuel companies developing dozens of new oil and gas prospects.
these developments will make the 1.5°C goal – which requires a complete stop to new oil and gas projects – much harder to attain.
Duncan Meisel, executive director of Clean Creatives, a campaign calling for PR and advertising agencies to boycott fossil fuel companies, told openDemocracy: “Working for oil drillers and fossil fuel power companies makes Brunswick an opponent of the action that UN high-level climate champions are trying to promote.”
PR companies’ role in the climate crisis has been under renewed scrutiny in recent months, after Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, condemned the “massive public relations machine raking in billions to shield the fossil fuel industry from scrutiny”...
Last month, more than 400 scientists called on the PR firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies to drop its fossil fuel clients after openDemocracyrevealed it was also working for the Egyptian presidency of COP27.
Some 636 fossil fuel industry representatives registered to attend COP27, according to research by Global Witness, leading to claims that the conference had been hijacked.
ggl 10 23
[### UN chief says Earth in 'era of global boiling', calls for ...
Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com › news › un-chief-says-ear...](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/27/un-chief-says-earth-in-era-of-global-boiling-calls-for-radical-action)
Jul 27, 2023 — UN chief Antonio Guterres calls the intense heat across the northern hemisphere 'terrifying' as he calls for radical action on climate change.
[### UN chief laments 'naked greed' of fossil fuel interests ...
Reuters
https://www.reuters.com › business › environment › un...](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/un-climate-summit-asks-some-countries-detail-progress-others-face-pressure-2023-09-20/)
Sep 21, 2023 — ... global warming, and the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said time was running short thanks to the "naked greed" of fossil fuel interests
[### U.N. Chief's Test: Shaming Without Naming the World's ...
The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com › guterres-climate-summit](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/19/climate/guterres-climate-summit.html)
Sep 19, 2023 — António Guterres told world leaders gathered in New York that their efforts to address the climate crisis had come up “abysmally short.”.
...
[### Children's Petition to the United Nations Secretary-General ...
Climate Change Litigation Databases
https://climatecasechart.com › Non-US Cases](https://climatecasechart.com/non-us-case/childrens-petition-to-the-united-nations-secretary-general-to-declare-a-climate-emergency/)
Secretary-General António Guterres asking him to declare a climate emergency. The petitioners rely on the impacts of climate change on human rights ...
[### UNGA climate summit: Guterres warns 'humanity has ...
CNN.com
https://www.cnn.com › 2023/09/20 › world › unga-cli...](https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/20/world/unga-climate-summit-guterres/index.html)
Sep 20, 2023 — In his Wednesday speech,Guterres called on developed countries to reach net-zero emissions – removing from the atmosphere at least as much ...
...
[### Antonio Guterres' Climate Change Letter to His Great- ...
Time Magazine
https://time.com › collection › earth-awards-2023 › a...](https://time.com/collection/earth-awards-2023/6272884/antonio-guterres-climate-change-apology-great-great-granddaughter/)
Apr 20, 2023 — Scientists, civil society, the U.N.—and most inspiring of all, young people—have led the charge for climate action. But too many leaders have ...
[### UN chief warns 'gates of hell' are at hand in climate summit ...
PBS
https://www.pbs.org › newshour › world › un-chief-...](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/un-chief-warns-gates-of-hell-are-at-hand-in-climate-summit-but-carbon-polluting-nations-remain-silent)
Sep 20, 2023 — “Humanity has opened the gates to hell,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday, opening a special climate ambition summit with ...
[### Readout of President Biden's Meeting with United Nations ...
The White House (.gov)
https://www.whitehouse.gov › 2023/09/19 › readout-...](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/09/19/readout-of-president-bidens-meeting-with-united-nations-secretary-general-antonio-guterres/)
Sep 19, 2023 — met today with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres during the UN General Assembly in New York. ... global challenges like climate ...
[### Climate change is moving faster than we are: UN Secretary ...
World Meteorological Organization
https://public.wmo.int › media › news › climate-chang...](https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/climate-change-moving-faster-we-are-un-secretary-general)
Sep 27, 2018 — The world has reached a “pivotal moment” and must change course in the next two years or risk runaway climate change, UN Secretary-General ...
[### UN chief denounces 'foot-dragging' and 'naked greed' for ...
Financial Times
https://www.ft.com › ... › António Guterres](https://www.ft.com/content/6199e651-5559-4320-abd8-865892407809)
Sep 20, 2023 — Simply sign up to the Climate change myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. UN secretary-general António Guterres told world ...
[### 'Fossil fuel age' has failed: Top nature and climate news
World Economic Forum
https://www.weforum.org › agenda › 2023/09 › fossi...](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/09/fossil-fuel-climate-and-nature-read-this-week/)
Sep 26, 2023 — Now is the time for a global plan to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the SDG Summit ...
[### COP28 In Dubai: Climate Negotiations At A Crossroads
Forbes
https://www.forbes.com › tilakdoshi › 2023/10/16](https://www.forbes.com/sites/tilakdoshi/2023/10/16/cop28-in-dubai-climate-negotiations-at-a-crossroads/)
10 hours ago — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the talks that countries must start phasing out oil, coal and gas and demanded that fossil fuel ...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28022022/ipcc-report-russia-ukraine-adaptation-fossil-fuels/
delay is death"
5 22 no lnx
BERLIN (AP) — A longtime contractor for Shell has publicly called out the oil and gas company’s climate plans, accusing the company of “double talk” by saying it wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions while working on tapping new sources of fossil fuel.
Caroline Dennett, who says she consulted Shell on safety issues for more than a decade, said Monday that she was ending her links with the company and urged others in the fossil fuel industry to do likewise.
“I’m quitting because of Shell’s double talk on climate,” Dennet said in a public post on the business networking site LinkedIn.
“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes extreme harms to our climate, to our environment, and to people,” she said. “And what ever they say, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”
Shell, which is due to hold its annual general meeting for shareholders Tuesday, responded by saying it was committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
“We have set targets for the short, medium and long term, and have every intention of hitting them,” the company said in a statement. “We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, although the world will still need oil and gas for decades to come in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonized.”
Dennett said her growing personal concerns about climate change made it increasingly difficult for her to work for Shell.
“It’s one thing to support a company to, hopefully, transition to alternative energy sources and making sure that they operate safely,” she told The Associated Press. “It’s another thing to actually be supporting new oil and gas projects.”
Dennett said climate change wasn’t a subject of discussion among front-line staff in the company.
“It’s probably happening in the PR team and the marketing and branding team, but it’s not happening in the operational divisions as far as I can see,” she said.
Dennet said she felt privileged to be able to sever her ties with Shell, and acknowledged others may not find it so easy.
“But the fossil fuel industry, it’s the past,” she said. “And if you can find a way out, then please walk away while there’s still time. Do it now.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres last month accused some government and business leaders of saying one thing but doing another when it comes to tackling global warming.
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“Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic,” he said, calling for an end to all new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Guterres recently appointed an expert panel to scrutinize companies’ net zero claims amid concerns that they could be mere “greenwashing.”
Follow AP’s coverage of climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate
he's good w/ metaphor
https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/limiting-climate-change-life-support/
"The 1.5-degree goal is on life support. It is in intensive care."
So said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterreson Monday, as he stressed that a swift and just transition to clean energy is necessary to meet the Paris agreement's objective of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels—andwarned against using Russia's deadly assault on Ukraine as an excuse to ramp up fossil fuel production worldwide.
"The science is clear. So is the math," the U.N. leader said during a speech delivered at a Sustainability Summit hosted by The Economist. "Keeping 1.5 alive requires a 45% reduction in global emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by mid-century." And yet, "according to present national commitments, global emissions are set to increase by almost 14% in the 2020s."
"We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe," Guterres continued. "Our planet has already warmed by as much as 1.2 degrees—and we see the devastating consequences everywhere. In 2020, climate disasters forced 30 million people to flee their homes—three times more than those displaced by war and violence."
Just this past weekend, scientists conveyed shock and alarm in response to reports that temperatures at both of Earth's poles reached more than 50°F above average last week. Peer-reviewed research published on Friday found that increasingly frequent and intense wildfires around the globe are exacerbating Arctic warming, which is worsening the conditions that make future blazes more likely.
"Two weeks ago," said Guterres, citing part two of the U.N.'s landmark climate assessment, "the IPCC confirmed that half of humanity is already living in the danger zone. Small island nations, least developed countries, and poor and vulnerable people everywhere areone climate shock away from doomsday. In our globally connected world, no country and no corporation can insulate itself from these levels of chaos."
"If we continue with more of the same, we can kiss 1.5 goodbye," he added. "Even 2 degrees may be out of reach. And that would be catastrophe."
Making matters worse, said Guterres, "the fallout from Russia's war in Ukraine risks upending global food and energy markets—with major implications for the global climate agenda."
The United States, United Kingdom, and European Union have moved to restrict imports of Russian fossil fuels in response to Moscow's military offensive. Although progressives have emphasized that the ongoing invasion should lead to an intensification of efforts to move away from dirty energy,profit-hungry proponents of oil, gas, and coal have seized on surging prices to push for boosting extraction and exports.
Guterres warned that "as major economies pursue an 'all-of-the-above' strategy to replace Russian fossil fuels, short-term measures might create long-term fossil fuel dependence and close the window to 1.5 degrees."
"Countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use," he said. "This is madness. Addiction to fossil fuels ismutually assured destruction."
"As current events make all too clear, our continued reliance on fossil fuels puts the global economy and energy security at the mercy of geopolitical shocks and crises," added Guterres. "We need to fix the broken global energy mix."
Noting that "the timeline to cut emissions by 45% is extremely tight," the U.N. leader stressed that "instead of hitting the brakes on the decarbonization of the global economy, now is the time to put the pedal to the metal towards a renewable energy future."
His remarks came just hours before the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) kicked off a two-week meeting to validate part three of its report, which focuses on the need to drastically slash carbon pollution to avoid the most disastrous outcomes.
Guterres argued that cooperation between the developed and emerging economies of the G20—responsible for 80% of global emissions—is essential to addressing the planetary emergency.
"Accelerating the phase-out of coal and all fossil fuels and implementing a rapid, just, and sustainable energy transition," he said, is "the only true pathway to energy security."
https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/great-barrier-reef-bleaching-event/
https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/climate-change-surge-uncharted-territory/
2 22 final?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/with-limited-amount-of-time-left-new-ipcc-report-urges-climate-adaptation/
no lnx
Climatewire
CLIMATE CHANGE
With ‘Limited Amount of Time Left,’ New IPCC Report Urges Climate Adaptation
Human and natural systems are already buckling under the influence of global warming, write the authors of a landmark report
By Chelsea Harvey, Sara Schonhardt, E&E News on February 28, 2022
The lowly Bramble Cay melomys, a small Australian rodent, wasn’t the kind of animal that often made the news. But in 2019, it splashed across headlines.
The reason? It was the first mammal to go extinct because of climate change.
Named for the island where it used to live, the little rodent had been declining for decades. Scientists had warned for several years beforehand that it was either already extinct or nearly there, blaming its demise on a combination of sea-level rise and increasing tropical storms.
Now almost certainly gone, the Bramble Cay melomys is a grim reminder that some consequences of climate change are forever—and that some of these irreversible impacts are happening today.
Those warnings are among the stark messages contained in a landmark climate report released today by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, composed of the world’s leading climate scientists. A rapidly warming world will hit humans and nature harder than expected, the report warns—and we’re far from prepared to deal with the fallout.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called the report “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.”
“With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change,” he said. ARSON ON OUR HOUSE?
The report is the latest of three in a major ongoing climate assessment by the IPCC—the sixth since the organization was established more than 30 years ago. The first installment in August, which focused on changes to the atmosphere, water and land, found that the window for limiting temperature rise to dangerous levels was nearly closed and that some of the shifts now in motion—such as sea-level rise—are irreversible (Climatewire, Aug. 9, 2021).
Today’s report focuses on how those physical changes will affect humans and natural ecosystems, and the ability of both to respond to what’s coming.
Its primary takeaways include a mix of warning and hope. Human and natural systems already are buckling under the influence of global warming. Some of them are approaching the limits of their ability to adapt. Some of them will be changed forever and won’t be able to bounce back—even if rising temperatures eventually recede.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Some places around the world still have time to put measures in place that can help them adapt to more extreme heat, severe storms, drought and flooding. But that will require more money and resources, better policies, understanding and involvement of local communities—and all of it without delay.
The Bramble Cay melomys is hardly the only irretrievable casualty of the warming world. Weather and climate extremes already have left some irreversible impacts as human and natural systems are pushed beyond their ability to respond, the report states.
Hundreds of other species around the world have gone locally extinct—not disappearing from the globe entirely but vanishing from some regions they used to call home. Some islands and other coastal areas are slipping beneath the rising seas, likely for good.
Within the last decade, residents of Louisiana’s rapidly shrinking island community of Isle de Jean Charles—many of whom belong to the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe—have become widely recognized as the first U.S. climate refugees. Elsewhere around the world, entire island nations are facing the prospect of forced relocation as their homes disappear beneath the swelling ocean.
Many ecosystems that haven’t yet passed the point of no return are approaching the brink. Mass mortality events are plaguing forests and coral reefs around the world. Permafrost is thawing across the Arctic, releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide and methane, degrading the landscape and threatening buildings and other infrastructure. Mountain glaciers are melting and shrinking, threatening local water supplies.
And around the world, human suffering is increasing as global temperatures rise.
Wildfires, droughts, floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather events are growing more intense. Food and water insecurity is rising, particularly across parts of Asia, Africa, Central and South America and small islands. Malnutrition is affecting more children and expectant mothers. Small-scale farmers and fishermen are losing their livelihoods.
Extreme heat is killing people and damaging vital infrastructure, such as roads and power systems. Heat waves have reduced people’s ability to work outdoors in some places. Severe storms have dented or even decimated economic growth in countries that can often least afford to lose it.
And it will only get worse with each fraction of a degree of warming.
“We simultaneously need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to reduce the risks of climate change and also address losses and damages that are already being experienced,” said Adelle Thomas, a scientist at Climate Analytics and the University of the Bahamas and a co-author of the report. “And we have a very limited amount of time left to do this.”
‘MUCH MORE NEGATIVE THAN EXPECTED’
The world has warmed by just over 1 degree Celsius (that’s nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, when humans began rapidly pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It doesn’t sound like much, but that small amount of warming already has wreaked havoc on Earth’s climate system.
“One of the most striking conclusions in our report is that we’re seeing adverse impacts as being much more widespread and being much more negative than expected in prior reports, than expected at the current 1.09 degrees that we have,” said Camille Parmesan, an ecologist at the University of Texas, Austin, and a co-author of the IPCC report.
The report, which synthesizes thousands of recent climate studies, reveals that some climate consequences are happening faster than scientists had expected at this level of warming.
Infectious diseases are spreading into new parts of the globe. Species are going extinct. Ecosystems are dramatically transforming.
Already, between 3.3 billion and 3.6 billion people around the world—nearly half the global population—are “highly vulnerable” to the impacts of climate change, the report finds. Climate change is taking its toll on both the physical and mental health of communities all over the world.
The findings suggest that even small amounts of future warming may have dire consequences for the planet, Parmesan noted.
In another half-degree Celsius, the world will exceed the 1.5 C warming threshold, the most ambitious target of the Paris climate agreement. If that happens, the report states, “then many human and natural systems will face additional severe risks,” including a growing danger of irreversible climate consequences.
Climate impacts around the world will grow even worse with additional warming. That’s a distinct possibility if global climate action doesn’t accelerate. At the moment, the climate policies enacted by world leaders put the world on track for around 3 degrees of warming by the end of the century.
“The good news is that the IPCC makes clear that we can limit the extent to which these climate impacts worsen if we meet the Paris targets, but so far the world—including the US—is not on track to meet those pledges,” said Dana Nuccitelli, a research coordinator with the nonprofit Citizens’ Climate Lobby, in an email to E&E News.
In land-based ecosystems, for instance, anywhere from 3 percent to 14 percent of all species may face a high risk of extinction at 1.5 C of warming. At 2 C, up to 18 percent may be threatened. At 3 C, it’s up to 29 percent—and the risk continues to grow with additional warming.
Sea-level rise will worsen as temperatures climb. And the coastal populations exposed to severe floods will increase as a result.
Both extreme rainfall events and severe drought are likely to increase in many places around the world. At 4 C of warming, around 10 percent of the entire global land area is likely to face a growing likelihood of both high river flows, increasing the risk of floods, and low river flows, increasing the risk of water shortages.
Hurricanes will grow more severe, likely causing more damage when they strike coastal communities. Wildfires will likely burn more land.
More people around the globe will suffer from extreme heat events. Heat is already the leading cause of weather-related death in the United States, and studies suggest it may cause hundreds of thousands of excess deaths around the world each year.
And food and water insecurity will continue to rise, as agriculture suffers and freshwater resources dwindle on a warming planet.
These impacts don’t affect all populations equally today, and they won’t in the future either. Certain parts of the world—particularly developing countries, small island nations and countries in tropical regions—are disproportionately at risk from many climate consequences, especially the effects of extreme heat and food and water insecurity.
And in nations all across the globe, including the United States, some populations are more vulnerable than others. These include lower-income communities, Indigenous communities and people of color, unhoused populations, and the elderly.
“Effective actions are those that reduce climate impacts and risks,” said Edwin Castellanos, a scientist at the University of the Valley of Guatemala and a co-author of the report. “And because these risks are different for different people, effective solutions need to provide site-specific actions. Putting vulnerable groups and countries at the heart of the decision-making process of how we respond to climate change can make societies more resilient.”
ADAPTATION: ‘CRITICAL TO OUR SURVIVAL’
Efforts to respond to climate impacts have improved and expanded. That’s particularly true for measures around water-related risks, such as the building of levees, early warning systems for flooding, wetland restoration and farm-based water management, the report states.
But progress on adaptation is uneven, driven in part by a lack of money needed to fund such efforts in places that face the greatest damage from rising temperatures.
Most adaptation efforts so far have been piecemeal and incremental—focused on reducing immediate climate risks rather than putting in place measures for long-term, transformational change, the report states.
They’re also small in scale and focused more on planning than implementation. And because those initiatives are geared toward current hazards, they are limited in their effectiveness as climate risks grow. And the warmer the world gets, the harder it becomes to adapt.
The report also finds that the gap between current adaptation efforts and what’s needed is widening and will only widen further if more action isn’t taken.
But there are feasible and effective adaptation options, according to the report. Heat health action plans can warn people of extreme temperatures and help protect them from exposure to prevent heat-related deaths. Restoring degraded forests can help them take in excess carbon rather than emit it. Protecting coastal or marine ecosystems, or creating corridors where threatened species can move to safer spaces, can help their survival.
But adaptation cannot prevent all the negative impacts of climate change, said Thomas, the Climate Analytics scientist and author.
In low-lying coastal communities, for example, the increasing intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes combined with sea-level rise will lead to losses that are irreparable. And the poorest and most vulnerable communities will be hit hardest, she said.
For some measures, such as water management, there is no amount of money or government support that can help with adaptation when there is no more water available.
The ability for human populations to respond to rising temperatures and try to hold them to the 1.5-degree limit also will depend on making sure natural systems are still capable of sucking carbon emissions from the atmosphere because reductions alone won’t be enough, said Parmesan from the University of Texas, Austin.
Yet the vast majority of climate finance goes toward efforts to reduce emissions, such as investments in clean energy infrastructure, rather than adaptation, Thomas said.
Another challenge? As climate damage dents economic growth, it can be harder for low-income countries to access the money needed to respond.
“Adaptation is critical to our survival in the face of climate change, but current financing schemes are underfunded and inaccessible to the majority of [small island developing states],” Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, which holds the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, said in a statement.
“The solutions are there, the report shows that adaptation works. It is particularly clearer now, given the implications and vulnerability outlined in this report, that financing for loss and damage is more crucial now than ever,” Browne added.
World leaders will gather in Egypt toward the end of this year to hammer out ways to respond faster and more effectively to impacts like those outlined in the report. Previous reports have served as the foundation for targets like the 1.5-degree temperature limit included in the Paris agreement.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said in a statement that while emissions reductions will continue to be crucial, “we must expand and expedite adaptation action.”
That matters since there also are limits to human adaptation—largely due to a lack of money and policies needed to support it. Those “soft limits” are currently playing out in low-lying coastal areas and among small-holder farmers who don’t have the resources to adapt further and will incur additional negative impacts from climate change as a result, Thomas said.
For coastal communities, what that means in practice is that installing sea walls, putting in sand dunes or restoring coral reefs or wetlands no longer will be financially feasible or may no longer be technically feasible, she explained.
But they can be overcome.
“If we put more resources toward adaptation, then additional adaptation options will open up,” Thomas said.
Time isn’t the only obstacle, either. Many countries that most need to respond to climate impacts are striving to develop and meet the needs of growing populations with limited resources. The report aims to show that adaptation and lower emissions can help with sustainable development.
But that will require increased international cooperation, especially a greater commitment to providing finance—which the report finds is currently insufficient—and also ensuring vulnerable countries have access to it.
It also will involve planning to respond to climate impacts when adaptation is no longer an option, such as relocating coastal communities when homes and livelihoods are eaten away by unstoppable rising tides.
Since the last report, there is further evidence that some adaptation can lead to unintended consequences that worsen the impacts of climate change—what’s known as maladaptation.
Examples include firefighting efforts in ecosystems that are adapted to fire and rely on it to prevent outbreaks of larger blazes or hard infrastructure that doesn’t allow for water runoff and can increase the likelihood of flooding. Sea walls that might protect coastal communities today might damage coral reef ecosystems offshore.
Maladaptation can exacerbate inequality and put communities at further risk, and it can be expensive to undo, the report states. What’s needed to avoid it is long-term planning that takes into account local contexts and works to integrate solutions across different areas.
“It really requires a systemic, comprehensive response—not just a piecemeal, standalone series of projects. [It takes] really thinking about how does the economy, climate resilience, food security, health all intersect and how a better understanding of climate change reshaping all of those sectors can help us build a more resilient, just and fair future,” said Shyla Raghav, vice president of climate change at Conservation International.
For adaptation to work, government support will be needed, the report finds. So too will clear, defined policies, better understanding of both climate impacts and solutions and access to the money to make them realities. Involving vulnerable communities, drawing on Indigenous knowledge and committing to climate justice is also vital, according to the report.
The fact that IPCC reports are endorsed by governments and provided to policymakers gives weight to their findings. And they do help influence policy, said Rachel Licker, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
But so far it hasn’t been enough.
“We’ve had these reports coming out for decades, and we’ve known what the causes are, we know what the solutions are, and we’re just not implementing them,” Licker said.
Despite the dire conclusions, ramping up action could be harder at a time when the world remains locked in a global pandemic and as war embroils Ukraine, threatening stability in Europe.
“We will always have emergencies at hand that seem to be more urgent than climate change,” said Castellanos of the University of the Valley of Guatemala.
But that’s no reason to delay, he added.
“We need to start addressing these problems of climate change,” he said. “Otherwise it’s going to be more complicated or even impossible to do so in the future.”
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned leaders to come to an upcoming climate summit with concrete plans to stem climate change, as the U.N. presented a new report by the World Meteorological Organization on Thursday.
Secretary-General António Guterres: “Every week brings a new example of climate-related devastation. No country or community is immune. And as is always the case, the poor and vulnerable are the first to suffer and the worst hit. … Global climate marches are sending a clear message. Young people are demanding that today’s leaders act on behalf of future generations. I echo that demand.”