The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has published its Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, a new assessment on minimizing global warming, and multiple IIASA researchers were involved in its production.
The report was approved by the IPCC at a meeting on 6 October in Incheon in South Korea and highlights the strong benefits to humanity and ecosystems of keeping global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, rather than 2°C. Governments will meet in Poland in December for the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) to review the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change, and the special report will provide important scientific input.
The world is currently on track for 3-4°C of warming, far off the Paris Agreement targets. If climate change is limited to 1.5°C, rather than 2°C, the global sea level rise would be 10cm lower, hundreds of million fewer people would be exposed to severe heatwaves, ocean acidification would be reduced, protecting the ecosystems, and irreversible impacts on polar ice sheets would be avoided.
Read more at International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
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