Limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require extreme
changes, including markedly increasing the percentage of electricity from
renewables by mid-century, according to a Sunday report from the
United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The report, commissioned as part of the 2015 Paris climate
agreement, presents a stark portrait of the future unless the world undertakes
“rapid, fair-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” in
the next decade or so — changes that thus far have been difficult for
decision-makers to agree on.
“The report shows that we only have the slimmest of
opportunities remaining to avoid unthinkable damage to the climate system that
supports life as we know it,” said Amjad Abdulla, an IPCC board member and
chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States.
