London, 20th March 2023 – The IPCC’s warning today that global temperatures will likely rise to 2°C this century, must be the catalyst for the world to urgently phase out climate-wrecking fossil fuels.
The stark warning comes as the IPCC says that public and private finance flows for fossil fuels are still greater than those for climate adaptation and mitigation.
The impact will be most felt in the Global South, with the United Nations warning that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.
Drawing on a previous IPCC report, NASA highlighted the damage 2°C would cause. At 1.5°C warming, 14% of the population will face severe heatwaves every five years; at 2°C, this rises to 37%.
The IPCC says change is possible, but we must act now. The world must take this wake-up call seriously and immediately reduce greenhouse gas emissions, transition to renewable energy sources, and implement effective adaptation strategies.
Alice Harrison, Fossil Fuel Lead Campaigner at Global Witness, said:
"This report spells out so clearly that humanity is in a last chance saloon to halt climate breakdown. Without taking immediate action to end the global reliance on fossil fuels, it is impossible to say that this crisis is being taken seriously.”
“With a 2 degree rise in global warming, over a third of the world’s population will suffer extreme heatwaves. Faced with this stark reality it defies both logic and ethics that we would carry on burning fossil fuels in line with the levels that created this mess in the first place.”
“Governments have a choice; to carry on prioritising the profits of extraordinarily rich oil and gas companies, or to prioritise the future of humanity. 2022 was a year that saw millions of people around the globe already impacted by the climate crisis, and saw the fossil fuel industry globally making $4 trillion. It couldn’t be clearer that it this is a crisis caused by corporate greed.”