UN scientists issue a 'code red for humanity' on climate
A landmark report found human influence on warming was 'unequivocal' and that some changes were now irreversible.
The world's leading climate scientists issued a stark warning this August, declaring in a landmark United Nations report that human influence on the warming of the planet was now "unequivocal" and that some of the resulting changes were already locked in for centuries.
The report, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, represented the most comprehensive assessment of the physical science of climate change in years, drawing on thousands of studies and the work of hundreds of scientists. The UN Secretary-General called its findings "a code red for humanity".
The assessment concluded that human activities had already warmed the planet by around 1.1 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, and that without rapid and deep cuts in emissions, the world would blow past the 1.5-degree target that nations had agreed to pursue, likely within two decades.
It detailed how warming was already intensifying extreme weather — heat waves, heavy rainfall, droughts and powerful storms — and warned that every fraction of a degree of additional warming would make such extremes more severe.
Crucially, the report also offered a measure of hope: it affirmed that the amount of future warming is still largely in human hands, and that swift, sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could limit the damage. The findings landed ahead of a major climate summit, sharpening the pressure on governments to act with far greater urgency.