SECRETARY-GENERAL STATEMENT

Dr. Jassim Taqui

DG Al-Bab Institute for Strategic Studies

Islamabad, August 9, 2021: Today’s IPCC Working Group 1. The report is a code red for humanity.  The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable:  greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk. Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible.

 The internationally agreed threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius is perilously close.

 We are at imminent risk of hitting 1.5 degrees in the near term. The only way to prevent exceeding this threshold is by urgently stepping up our efforts, and pursuing the most ambitious path.

 We must act decisively now to keep 1.5 alive.

 We are already at 1.2 degrees and rising. Warming has accelerated in recent decades. Every fraction of a degree counts.  Greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels. Extreme weather and climate disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity. That is why this year’s United Nations climate conference in Glasgow is so important. 

 We need immediate action on energy. Without deep carbon pollution cuts now, the A 1.5-degree goal will fall quickly out of reach. This report must sound like a death knell for coal and fossil fuels before they destroy our planet.  There must be no new coal plants built after 2021.  OECD countries must phase out existing coal by 2030, with all others following suit by 2040.  Countries should also end all new fossil fuel exploration and production, and shift fossil fuel subsidies into renewable energy.  By 2030, solar and wind capacity should quadruple and renewable energy investments should triple to maintain a net-zero trajectory by mid-century.