Non-Profit Groups and Scientists React to the Fifth IPCC Report

Environmental groups and other non-profit NGOs have reacted positively to the IPCC AR5 summary for policy makers. In addition to supporting the report’s scientific conclusions, they are advocating immediate action. Unsurprisingly scientists have also responded positively to the report and are also calling for urgent action. Here is a brief summary of some of the responses:

What nonprofit leaders said

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune: “The findings in this report confirm that we need the safeguards to curb climate-disrupting carbon pollution from new power plants that the Obama Administration proposed last week. And we cannot stop there. To cement his legacy and protect future generations, President Obama must reject the expansion of dirty fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas — as well as dangerous nuclear power — and move full-speed ahead to grow the job-creating clean energy economy.”

Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima: “Scientists have confirmed what farmers in poor countries around the world have been telling us for years, that changes to their climate are destroying their livelihoods, ruining crops, hitting incomes, food quality and often their family’s health.”

What scientists said

Stanford University climate researcher Chris Field, a contributor to the IPCC report: “Continuing rapid emissions now is kicking the climate can down the road, leaving climate change for our children and grandchildren. But it is kicking a can that gets to be bigger, heavier and harder to move with each kick.”
Qin Dahe, co-chair of the IPCC working group that produced the report: “Observations of changes in the climate system are based on multiple lines of independent evidence.”
David MacKay, scientific adviser to the U.K. government: “The far-reaching consequences of this warming are becoming understood, although some uncertainties remain. The most significant uncertainty, however, is how much carbon humanity will choose to put into the atmosphere in the future.”
Rajendra Pachauri, Head of the IPCC: governments must act now to cut carbon pollution: “We have five minutes before midnight.”