27th September, 2013
A UN report on global warming released on Friday predicts that global sea levels are to rise “at a faster rate’’ than previously anticipated, underlining there was greater proof this was due to human activities.
“As the ocean warms, and glaciers and ice sheets reduce, global mean sea level will continue to rise, but at a faster rate than we have experienced over the past 40 years,” said Din Qahe, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group that compiled the report.
The IPCC operated with four scenarios of emissions of greenhouse gases that drive global warming.
In the lowest simulation sea levels were projected to rise by 26 centimetres by 2100, but in a high-end scenario could reach 82 centimetres.
Its previous report from 2007 estimated a rise of 18-59 centimetres.
Global average temperatures could, according to the various projections in the report, rise by 1.5 to 4.8 degrees Centigrade.
In a videotaped message, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said “the heat is on, now we must act’’ and to push momentum he would invite government leaders, business executives and scientists to a climate meeting in September 2014.
The UN report entitled Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science, claims more and better observations, improved understanding of the climate system response and improved climate models.
The full 2,000-page report was due to be released on Monday after it was adopted on Friday by scientists and government officials from more than 100 countries.
The delegates, who have been working behind closed doors in the Swedish capital Stockholm, also approved a 36-page summary for policymakers following overnight deliberations.
The report contains a “wealth of new knowledge,’’ said IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri, noting that it drew on 9,200 scientific publications of which about two-thirds were published after 2007.
Other conclusions were that “human influence has been the dominant cause” of rising temperatures since the 1950s.
Ice sheets and glaciers worldwide are losing mass and sea ice cover is decreasing in the Arctic, it said.
The period between 1983 and 2012 was “likely the warmest period of the last 1,400 years.”
“There is a need for us to reduce greenhouse gases substantially if we really want to stabilise the climate system,’’ Thomas Stocker, co-chair of the IPCC working group said at a news conference.
The report is the first of three prepared by working groups in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Other IPCC groups are due to report on the effects of climate change and measures to reduce the phenomenon.
The three reports were to be compiled in an overall synthesis report due in October 2014.
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in New York on Thursday that the report would be a wake-up call for the world showing that climate change indicators have been underestimated and urgent action is needed.
The panel’s findings are also used in international climate negotiations.
“The strongest take away from this report is that we still have a choice. We can keep within the limits that governments themselves have agreed to but so far failed to act on,’’ said Stephanie Tunmore of Greenpeace International, an observer organisation at the meeting.