The countdown to climate catastrophe is on as a major new report from the United Nations warns that Earth is hurtling toward a dangerous global warming threshold within the next decade.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) cautions that global average temperatures could surge by 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by the first half of the 2030s unless nations take immediate action to shift from fossil fuels. The IPCC's grim forecast serves as a "final warning" on the climate crisis, signaling that rising greenhouse gas emissions are pushing the world to the brink of irrevocable damage that only swift and drastic action can avert.
According to the comprehensive report, compiled over eight years by hundreds of scientists, the impact of climate change will become increasingly harder to manage beyond the 1.5-degree threshold. Consequences such as heatwaves, flooding, droughts and the extinction of species are already being felt worldwide, with millions of people facing hunger and vital ecosystems facing "increasingly irreversible losses." In the words of the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the report is a "clarion call" to take massive and immediate action on climate change.
Clean-energy startups have gained significant traction in recent years to combat this trend, despite the controversy associated with the topic. For example, Bill Gates started Breakthrough Energy Ventures to fund clean energy startups and is currently one of the leading venture capital firms in the world for clean energy startups. And even retail has been investing millions into clean-energy startups like Qnetic, who recently launched on Wefunder, which means anyone can invest for a limited time.
The IPCC's report highlights that the world has one last chance to shift course by slashing greenhouse gases in half by 2030 and then stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere altogether by the early 2050s. If industrialized nations can join together to take these steps, the world would have a 50% chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Guterres has emphasized the need for urgent and drastic measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the effects of climate change. He called upon governments to invest in renewable energy and low-carbon technology as a means of achieving this goal.
Guterres stressed that time is of the essence and that waiting until the 2050 deadline for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, as most countries have committed to, is too late. He urged rich nations to aim for "as close as possible to 2040" as the target year for achieving this milestone.
The gravity of the situation is underscored by the fact that more than 3 billion people around the world already live in areas that are highly vulnerable to climate breakdown. At least half of the global population experiences severe water scarcity for part of the year. These are alarming figures that demand immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
