Landmark U.N. report delivers stark warning on climate change, says it’s ‘code red for humanity’

Published

4 years ago

August 9, 2021

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A wildfire burn trees on August 2, 2021 in Mugla, Marmaris district, as the European Union sent help to Turkey and volunteers joined firefighters in battling a week of violent blazes that have killed eight people.

YASIN AKGUL | AFP | Getty Images

The world’s leading climate scientists on Monday delivered their starkest warning yet about the deepening climate emergency, projecting climate changes to increase across all regions in the coming decades.

A highly anticipated report by the U.N.’s climate panel warns that limiting global warming to close to 1.5 degrees Celsius or even 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels “will be beyond reach” without immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

To be sure, the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold is a crucial global target because beyond this level, so-called tipping points become more likely. Tipping points refer to an irreversible change in the climate system, locking in further global heating.

At 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, the report says heat extremes would often reach critical tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest findings, approved by 195 member states on Friday, deals with the physical science basis of climate change and outline how humans are altering the planet. It is the first installment of four reports released under the IPCC’s current assessment cycle, with subsequent reports scheduled to be published next year.

The first part of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, while relatively brief, provides world leaders with a gold standard summation of modern climate science ahead of U.N. climate talks, known as COP26, in early November.

“This report is a reality check,” said IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair Valérie Masson-Delmotte.

“We now have a much clearer picture of the past, present and future climate, which is essential for understanding where we are headed, what can be done, and how we can prepare.”

What does the report say?

Climate scientists warned that they are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system.

The report shows that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are responsible for roughly 1.1 degrees Celsius of warming since 1850-1900, and finds that averaged over the next 20 years, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The U.N. climate panel says “strong and sustained” reductions of carbon emissions and other greenhouses gases would limit climate change. Benefits such as improved air quality would come quickly, while it could take 20 to 30 years to see global temperatures stabilize, it adds.

The IPCC report makes clear that it is not just about temperature. It says climate change is bringing different changes in different regions — and all will increase with further global heating.

These changes include more intense rainfall and associated flooding, more intense drought in many regions, coastal areas to see continued sea level rise throughout the 21st century, the amplification of permafrost thawing, ocean acidification, among many others.

A couple rides a pedal boat as smoke from nearby forest fires hangs over the city of Yakutsk, in the republic of Sakha, Siberia, on July 27, 2021.

DIMITAR DILKOFF | AFP | Getty Images

It follows a series of mind-bending extreme weather events worldwide. For instance, in just the last few weeks, floods have wreaked havoc in Europe, China and India, toxic smoke plumes have blanketed Siberia and wildfires have burned out of control in the U.S., Canada, Greece and Turkey.

Policymakers are under immense pressure to deliver on promises made as part of the Paris Agreement ahead of COP26. Yet, even as global leaders publicly acknowledge the necessity of transitioning to a low-carbon society, the world’s dependency on fossil fuels is expected to get even worse.

The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, published in 2014, provided the key scientific input to the Paris Agreement.

Almost 200 countries ratified the Paris climate accord at COP21 in 2015, agreeing to limit the planet’s temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.

It remains a key focus ahead of COP26, although some climate scientists now believe that hitting this latter target is already “virtually impossible.”

The IPCC has previously recognized that the necessary transition away from fossil fuels will be a huge undertaking that requires “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes” across all aspects of society.

It has underscored the point that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius “could go hand in hand with ensuring a more sustainable and equitable society,” with clear benefits to both humans and natural ecosystems.

However, a U.N. analysis published earlier year found that pledges made by countries around the world to curb greenhouse gas emissions were still “very far” from the profound measures required to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate breakdown.

What is the IPCC?

The IPCC is a U.N. body of 195 member states that assesses the science related to the climate crisis.

It was founded in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization to provide world leaders with periodic updates about the scale of the climate emergency, its implications and risks and to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies.

It is formed of three working groups. The first, Working Group I, deals with the physical science basis of climate change. This group presented its contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report on Monday.

Working Group II deals with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and Working Group III assesses the mitigation of climate change. A separate task force assesses methodologies for measuring greenhouse gas emissions and removals.

Thousands of climate scientists volunteer their time to pore over the latest climate research to contribute to the work of the IPCC. The reports are drafted and reviewed at several stages and are of fundamental importance to international climate negotiations.

The Working Group II and Working Group III reports are scheduled to be finalized in February and March 2022, respectively. A concluding Synthesis Report is also due to be published next year.

Environment

Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

Published

6 hours ago

April 2, 2025

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

In a joint statement, the French CAE and the German Council of Economic Experts have called for "a common approach" by France and Germany in the decarbonisation of road freight transport. And in doing so, the experts are clearly committed to battery-electric trucks.

In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.

France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.

At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.

And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:

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While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.

FRANCO-GERMAN COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS (FGCEE)

That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.

“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”

The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.

You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.

Electrek’s Take

Hydrogen-sceptical truck maker MAN to produce limited series of 200 vehicles with H2 combustion engines — MAN hydrogen semi; via MAN Trucks.

MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.

He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”

With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.

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Environment

Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

Published

7 hours ago

April 2, 2025

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

On today’s tariff-tastic episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got tariffs! Big ones, small ones, crazy ones, and fake ones – but whether or not you agree with the Trump tariffs coming into effect tomorrow, one thing is absolutely certain: they are going to change the price you pay for your next car … and that price won’t be going down!

Everyone’s got questions about what these tariffs are going to mean for their next car buying experience, but this is a bigger question, since nearly every industry in the US uses cars and trucks to move their people and products – and when their costs go up, so do yours.

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Environment

SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

Published

9 hours ago

April 1, 2025

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

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