Mitigating climate change has become an imperative

OVER the past decade global warming and the impact of climate change have increasingly occupied governments, policymakers and the investment community.

But the most recent report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has raised the stakes even further. The report issues a dire warning: To avoid catastrophe, the world must make deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions before 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Centigrade. Failure to do so would expose economies to an array of adverse consequences - extreme weather changes, higher sea levels, destruction of coral reefs and the possibility of severe drought, among others. The human cost is staggering in the form of the loss of livelihoods in affected areas, disruptions to supply of food and water, spread of diseases and widespread migration that would strain social services, among others.

IPCC's report was requested by governments which signed the 2015 Paris Agreement, which had at the time sought to limit average global temperature rise to "well below" 2C, while striving for a more stringent goalpost of 1.5C. Its findings have come none too soon. Concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit record levels this year. If left unchecked, global temperatures could rise by 3C or higher, even with the current pledges under the Paris Agreement. The difference between a 1.5 and 2 degree C target may seem modest but there is a sobering difference in the outcomes. According to Carbon Brief, at the 1.5C target, the probability of at least one severe heat wave every 20 years would be 50 per cent. This rises to 70 per cent at 2C. At 1.5C, an estimated 28 million of the global population would experience flooding at coastal areas, rising to 30 million at the 2C scenario. At the 1.5C scenario, global per capita GDP would fall by 8 per cent, compared 13 per cent at 2C.