Global warming: Experts endorse UN panel’s findings
Intergovernmental panel releases the first part of its report, concluding global warming is ‘unequivocal’.
Intergovernmental panel releases the first part of its report, concluding global warming is ‘unequivocal’. PHOTO: REUTERS/ FILE
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistani experts have supported the announcement by world’s leading climate scientists that global warming is ‘unequivocal’ and humans are ‘extremely likely’ to be responsible for it.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body that provides scientific reports on the risk of climate change, released the first part of its Fifth Assessment Report in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday after days of consideration.
The assessment concluded that the ‘warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia,’ indicating there was no longer any doubt that climate change is happening.
The report, prepared by over 200 scientists, also blamed human actions, which have led to greenhouse gas emissions, for the planet’s warming.
“One of the 18 key messages that the 110 governments that were present in this room for four days have adopted in consensus: Human influence on the climate system is clear,” said Professor Thomas Stocker, a co-chair of the IPCC’s Working Group-I.
The report further read, “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.”
“I think the report shows there is no doubt climate change is happening,” Dr Mohsin Iqbal, the head of Agriculture and Coordination section at Pakistan’s Global Change Impact Studies Centre said. “It is real.”
Iqbal, who is himself a lead author for a section of the IPCC’s Working Group-II report, said the extreme weather events and unpredictable weather patterns in Pakistan are also visible indications of climate change.
He said food security, water and the energy sector are three areas climate change would impact in Pakistan in the future. Iqbal said the National Climate Change Policy, which was approved in February, has recommendations to combat these threats.
A national plan of action is being prepared for the policy’s implementation, he said, which must be completed as soon as possible.
Dr Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry, a senior climate expert said “the IPCC is the most authoritative intergovernmental scientific body on climate change.”
Chaudhry supported the report’s findings and said, “the consistency of observed and modeled changes across the climate system point to global climate change.”
In its report, the IPCC said each of the last three decades have been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface.
While environmentalists around the world hailed the report as the definitive statement on existence of climate change, the skeptics lashed out against the climate models used by the IPCC.
However, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the world’s governments to listen to the IPCC’s findings.
“This new report will be essential for governments as they work to finalise an ambitious legal agreement on climate change in 2015,” Ki-moon said in a video message aired before the press conference in Stockholm. “The heat is on. Now we must act.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2013.
Pakistani experts have supported the announcement by world’s leading climate scientists that global warming is ‘unequivocal’ and humans are ‘extremely likely’ to be responsible for it.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body that provides scientific reports on the risk of climate change, released the first part of its Fifth Assessment Report in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday after days of consideration.
The assessment concluded that the ‘warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia,’ indicating there was no longer any doubt that climate change is happening.
The report, prepared by over 200 scientists, also blamed human actions, which have led to greenhouse gas emissions, for the planet’s warming.
“One of the 18 key messages that the 110 governments that were present in this room for four days have adopted in consensus: Human influence on the climate system is clear,” said Professor Thomas Stocker, a co-chair of the IPCC’s Working Group-I.
The report further read, “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.”
“I think the report shows there is no doubt climate change is happening,” Dr Mohsin Iqbal, the head of Agriculture and Coordination section at Pakistan’s Global Change Impact Studies Centre said. “It is real.”
Iqbal, who is himself a lead author for a section of the IPCC’s Working Group-II report, said the extreme weather events and unpredictable weather patterns in Pakistan are also visible indications of climate change.
He said food security, water and the energy sector are three areas climate change would impact in Pakistan in the future. Iqbal said the National Climate Change Policy, which was approved in February, has recommendations to combat these threats.
A national plan of action is being prepared for the policy’s implementation, he said, which must be completed as soon as possible.
Dr Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry, a senior climate expert said “the IPCC is the most authoritative intergovernmental scientific body on climate change.”
Chaudhry supported the report’s findings and said, “the consistency of observed and modeled changes across the climate system point to global climate change.”
In its report, the IPCC said each of the last three decades have been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface.
While environmentalists around the world hailed the report as the definitive statement on existence of climate change, the skeptics lashed out against the climate models used by the IPCC.
However, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the world’s governments to listen to the IPCC’s findings.
“This new report will be essential for governments as they work to finalise an ambitious legal agreement on climate change in 2015,” Ki-moon said in a video message aired before the press conference in Stockholm. “The heat is on. Now we must act.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2013.