Code Red for Humanity

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to provide policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.

Its most recent report released early last month is most alarming. It described climate change as “rapid, widespread, and intensifying…” The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said that the report was nothing less than a “code red for humanity.” He said: “The evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions are choking our planet and placing billions of people in danger. Global heating is affecting every region of the earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible.” He noted that the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, agreed to in Paris in 2015 by 196 countries as the amount of increase to which climate change would be limited in this entire century, is already “perilously close.”  He urged action in Glasgow in November at the COP 26 conference on climate change at which the G 20 economies would have the opportunity to join the net zero coalition to slow down and reverse global heating “with credible, concrete, and enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions.”