Hope, Concern Not Enough – Action Must Follow Latest IPCC Findings

Sea level rise and sea inundation along  Fiji’s coastal communities will worsen if big carbon emitters carry on with its business-as-usual attitude.

Already, several villages and com­munities are contemplating relo­cation. At least 40 of these com­munities need to move urgently according to Government.

And when you add global heating to the mix – it’s expected to affect our daily lives, from the things we can grow, to how we farm.

At least these are some of the scenarios outlined in the latest In­tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

The report, Climate Change 2022 Impacts, Adaptation and Vulner­ability by ‘Working Group II’ is the second installment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).

The Working Group II report looks at the impacts of climate change on nature and people. It explores the future impacts at different levels of warming, the resulting risks and offers options to strengthen nature and society’s resilience to ongoing climate change, to fight hunger, poverty and inequality.

Like previous reports, the science is bleak for Fiji and the Pacific.

Professor Patrick Nunn, one of the lead authors of the ‘Small Is­lands’ chapter in the report broke down the technical jargon.

“In a warmer world, we will find it more difficult to sleep at night so the temptation to use air-condition­ing (which is often run by power that pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere) is often hard to resist.

“But it won’t help the big picture. We need to design houses – like bure or Samoan fale – that maxim­ise the amount of natural cooling for people inside without using electricity.”

Embedding such indigenous and local knowledge as well as integrat­ing cultural resources into decision making has been identified as a key adaptation option in the report.

A Fijian bure is ade from natural fibre materials.

With the preparatory work to COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt already well underway, Professor Howden is confident that the IPCC report will have a significant im­pact on commitments, promises and delivery.

Across the globe, leading climate negotiators have singled out COP27 as the year to deliver.

“It is really important for the Pa­cific to maintain a strong voice in these discussions as part of their arguments that they put forward in the next Conference of the Parties, the next Pacific Island Forum meet­ing, and all other points of discus­sion which convey the urgency of action on climate change to other countries,” he said.

Professor Howden has had over 24 different roles in the publication of the IPCC report. The latest when he was the vice chair of the IPCC Working Group II for the Sixth As­sessment Cycle.

UN SECRETARY GENERAL .

Delay means death.

United Na­tions Secretary-General, António Guterres was blunt about the real­ity the report highlighted.

“You cannot claim to be green while your plans and projects un­dermine the 2050 net-zero target and ignore the major emissions cuts that must occur this decade.

“We need new eligibility systems to deal with this new reality.”

He added that the Glasgow com­mitment on adaptation funding is clearly not enough to meet the challenges faced by nations on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

“I’m also pressing to remove the obstacles that prevent small island states and least developed coun­tries from getting the finance they desperately need to save lives and livelihoods,” he said.

“I take inspiration from all those on the frontlines of the climate bat­tle fighting back with solutions.”

UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

Executive Director of the UN En­vironment Programme, Inger An­dersen said we are in an emergency, heading for a disaster.

“We can’t keep taking the hits and treating the wounds. Soon those wounds will be too deep, too cata­strophic, to heal. We need to sof­ten and slow the blows by cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

“But we also need to cushion the blows by picking up our efforts to adapt to climate change – which have been too weak for too long.”

RELEASE OF NEXT REPORT

The Working Group III contribu­tion is scheduled to be finalised in early April 2022.

It is responsible for assessing the mitigation of climate change – re­sponses and solutions to the threat of dangerous climate change

This can be done by reducing emissions and enhancing sinks of the greenhouse gases that are re­sponsible for global warming.

Feedback: rosi@fijisun.com.fj