January 1, Experts Issue ‘Bleakest Warning Yet’ on Climate Change

Scientists say the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report is “the bleakest warning yet” on climate breakdown.

“The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet,” Hans-Otto Pörtner of the IPCC said.

“Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.”

In what some scientists dubbed “the bleakest warning yet,” the summary report from the global authority on climate science says droughts, floods, heatwaves, and other extreme weather are accelerating and wreaking increasing damage.

António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said: “I have seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this. Today’s IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.”

John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, said the report “paints a dire picture of the impacts already occurring because of a warmer world and the terrible risks to our planet if we continue to ignore science. We have seen the increase in climate-fueled extreme events, and the damage that is left behind – lives lost and livelihoods ruined. The question at this point is not whether we can altogether avoid the crisis – it is whether we can avoid the worst consequences.”

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IPCC issues ‘bleakest warning yet’ on impacts of climate breakdown