Global Warming

U.N.'s Most Dire Climate Change Warning Yet

The U.N. panel on climate change concluded in its fourth and final volume of climate assessment that humans may be forced to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero this century to avoid global temperatures rising to dangerous levels.

It also warned that failure to reduce the use of fossil fuels could compel the world to find ways of removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere in the future.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s assessment also says human activities are to blame for nearly all global warming since the 1950s.

“Science has spoken. There is no ambiguity in their message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the report’s launch in Copenhagen.

The final report must be approved by governments and scientists in advance of a 2015 deadline for a global agreement on limiting climate change.

The IPCC says the financial costs of shifting to solar, wind and other renewable sources, and improving energy efficiency, would reduce global economic growth only by 0.06 per cent annually.