The latest report released this week by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows how serious the situation is for the Philippines and other poor, vulnerable countries that are highly impacted by climate change.
The Synthesis report, which assessed the three earlier IPCC reports, summarizes the latest data and research on climate change underscores the need for urgent climate action, said climate change expert Rosa Perez.
“ The report is both a challenge and an opportunity for the Philippines and other vulnerable countries,” Perez told journalists. “ It suggest on ways on how countries deal with climate policies and sustainable development as well as for rich countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions.”
Perez, also a contributing author of the IPCC report, said that climate change has already a devastating impact to the Philippines with more fiercer typhoons, sea level rise, flooding and droughts. The Philippines experience an average of 25 typhoon a year, mostly devastating parts of the country.
According to the synthesis report, the impacts of climate change have already been felt in recent decades on all continents and across the oceans. The more human activity disrupts the climate, the greater the risks.
Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of widespread and profound impacts affecting all levels of society and the natural world, the report finds.
Many risks constitute particular challenges for the least developed countries and vulnerable communities, given their limited ability to cope. People who are socially economically, culturally, politically, institutionally or otherwise marginalized are especially vulnerable to climate change, the report said.
Indeed, limiting the effects of climate change raise issues of equity, justice, and fairness and is necessary to achieve sustainable development and poverty eradication.
The report summarizes the physical science of climate change; current and future impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation of human and natural worlds; and mitigation opportunities and challenges.
Earlier, IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri said that this report provides the “roadmap” to a global agreement in Paris in 2015.
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