Sir, – Eoin McMahon (November 23rd) writes that “the IPCC report on climate change is increasingly discredited”. By whom? If anything, it seriously understates the problem.
Though Europe and the United States are roughly on target to achieving their share of emission reductions, China, India, and Brazil are not. There are expected to be one billion middle-class consumers in China and India within the next 10 years – twice the entire population of the EU. Their energy demands will entail an enormous addition in pumped out CO2. Thus, the 2012 World Bank report notes, even if all current pledges to reduce emissions were carried out, the world is on a trajectory for mean global warming of well over 3 degrees, and a 20 per cent chance that warming may reach 4 degrees.
Another report, commissioned in 2012 by 20 governments, predicted that 100 million people will die, and global economic growth will be cut by 3.2 per cent by 2030, if climate change is not adequately tackled.
Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency stated, “I am very worried. This is the worst news on emissions. It is becoming extremely challenging to remain below 2 degrees. The prospect is getting bleaker”. Lord Stern warned that, if the pattern continued, the results would be “dire”. Dr James Hansen, author and climatology specialist, has claimed that a rise of two degrees Celsius is “guaranteed disaster”. – Yours, etc,