High-Level Segment of world leaders climate action summit

IPCC Chair’s remarks during the opening of the climate summit that climate change is no longer an abstract threat for a distant future. It has been unfolding in front of our eyes. The extremes we are witnessing are aggravated by human-induced climate change. This is the new normal.

Jim Skea as the IPCC Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change addressed the High-Level Segment of COP 29. He said, in the 12 months since the last COP in the UAE, people across Asia and in the Sahel have endured extreme temperatures as an example. Today, our chances of limiting warming to 1.5 °C are hanging on a very slender thread. The recent UNEP Gap Report concluded that global emissions would need to fall by 7.5 per cent per year through to 2035 to return us to a 1.5 °C pathway. If we delay more ambitious action to 2030, this becomes an unprecedented 15 per cent per year. Even limiting warming to 2 °C is at risk.

Imagine what is in store in the coming decades, if we do not act swiftly and decisively. With every fraction of a degree of global warming, we face greater threats. Children born today will not know a world without climate change. The IPCC has shown that we, and furthermore they, will live in a world marked by more intense storms, exceptional heatwaves, devastating floods and droughts, a world where food chains are disrupted, and where diseases reach new countries.

This does not have to be the case. As the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report demonstrated, we have the know-how, tools and financial resources to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. A world where transport is no longer polluting, our cities are green, and we have transitioned away from fossil fuels. We have shown that carbon pricing, regulations and other interventions have already resulted in gigatonnes of avoided emissions. More can be achieved if policies and measures are scaled up and deployed more widely. Furthermore, we have shown that climate action can contribute to other development goals, such as improving air quality and human health.

With climate change already on us, we must address adaptation. The IPCC will be paying particular attention to this in the coming cycle. Most adaptation so far is fragmented, small in scale, incremental, sector-specific, and focused more on planning rather than implementation. But we can take measures to address the triple planetary crisis of climate, biodiversity and pollution. We can increase our resilience to the impacts of climate change by leveraging decision-support tools and implementing more early warning systems.

IPCC will continue to provide timely, robust, policy-relevant information to support accelerated adaptation efforts and cuts in emissions. But, the resolution of this global crisis is now in your hands.

Decisions made here at COP 29 will shape the legacy we leave behind to our children and grandchildren, and for the billions of people who deserve a livable planet.