According to a new analysis released on November 5 and reported in the Guardian, the world is on track for “at least six degrees of warming” by the end of the century. The new research was conducted by consultancy giant PwC. Their investigation concluded that we will need a “5.1 per cent annual cut in global emissions per unit of GDP, known as carbon intensity, through to 2050 if the world is to avoid the worst effects of climate change and meet an internationally agreed target of limiting average temperature increases to just two degrees above pre-industrial levels.”
The growth of GHG emissions in emerging countries represent one of the biggest challenges to combating climate change. Specifically nations like China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia and Turkey, whose cumulative 7.4 percent annual increase in emissions. However emerging nations are not alone, the research indicates that industrialized countries must also accelerate their carbon reduction efforts.
The report concludes that “governments and businesses can no longer assume that a two-degree warming world is the default scenario”, and urges greater planning to cope with the disruptive effects that more unpredictable and extreme weather will have on supply chains, long-term assets, and infrastructure, particularly in coastal or low-lying regions.
Meanwhile, businesses in carbon-intensive sectors must also anticipate “invasive regulation” and the possibility of stranded assets, said Jonathan Grant, director of sustainability and climate change at PwC.
“Resilience will become a watchword in the boardroom – to policy responses as well as to the climate,” he said. “More radical and disruptive policy reactions in the medium term could lead to high-carbon assets being stranded.
According to National Geographic, a 6 degree rise in temperature will radically change our world.
To avert the worst effects of climate change we must imediately begin to radically reduce emissions. The focus should be on cleaner power generation, energy-efficiency, transport and industry, as well as forest preservation (REDD).
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