17 January 2014
Draft Report IPCC: Choice in combating climate change is some economic pain now, or more later
A leaked draft report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that the reluctance of states to take measures to battle climate change has made that the situation has grown critical, and the risk of severe economic disruption is rising. It also finds that another 15 years of failure to limit carbon emissions could make the problem virtually impossible to solve with current technologies.
The report finds that if states permit continued high emissions growth until 2030, the agreed target that the warming of the planet should be limited to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels will most likely be impossible to meet. Future generations then would have to develop ways to pull greenhouse gases out of the air. But it is not clear whether such technologies will ever exist at the necessary scale, and even if they do, the approach would probably be wildly expensive compared with taking steps now to slow emissions.
Source: The New York Times | U.N. Says Lag in Confronting Climate Woes Will Be Costly