UN warns of runaway global warming
The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation in a May 27 report said the odds that global temperatures could spike above pre-industrial levels are increasing quickly.
There is a 90% chance that at least one year between now and 2025 will see the highest-ever annual average global temperature. In at least one of the next five years, there is a 40% chance that the global average temperature will breach 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
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The 1.5°C mark is the target limit spelled out in the Paris climate accord. The odds that level will be exceeded, the WMO said, are increasing over time.
“It is yet another wakeup call that the world needs to fast-track commitments to slash greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality,” WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said.
The report stated that 2016 was the warmest year on record to date. But according to the WMO, every year between now and 2025 is likely to be even warmer.
“These are more than just statistics,” Taalas said. “Increasing temperatures mean more melting ice, higher sea levels, more heatwaves and other extreme weather, and greater impacts on food security, health, the environment and sustainable development,” he said.
From a Dutch court order that mandates lower emissions from Royal Dutch Shell, to the seating of environmental activists on the board of ExxonMobil, a sea change is underway in the global energy sector as the impacts of climate change become more apparent.
Governments are subsidising the energy transition, while big energy companies embrace technology like carbon capture and storage to lower their emissions of harmful greenhouse gases.
Consultant group Wood Mackenzie in a recent report said that efforts to limit warming will bring profound changes to the oil and gas industry. Demand for natural gas, seen as a bridge to a cleaner future, will remain strong, but the industry will need to evolve. Oil demand, expectedly, will shrink.
Ann-Louise Hittle, vice president of Macro Oils at Wood Mackenzie, said the oil and gas industry cannot afford to do nothing.
“The risks associated with robust climate-change policy and rapidly changing technology are too great,” she said.