Global warming report threatens the environment, world peace

A new global warming report from the UN finds the world will continue to heat for at least the next twenty years.

Global Warming Report Threatens the Environment, World Peace

A new landmark report from the key United Nations body on climate change has found that, due to human activity and fossil fuel emissions, the world will continue to heat for at least the next twenty years.

It also reports that there is now only a small window to stop a future in which drastic global heating significantly affects the lives of billions.

There are a number of negative political effects from the changing and at the Institute of Economics and Peace we have been studying how ecological threat affects peace, primarily though our annual Ecological Threat Register.

Our 2020 Ecological Threat Register found that ecological change will have a profound effect on global peace and security in the future, and the scale of turmoil will likely be linked to the level of warming.

The UN report, called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),  presented five climate scenarios based on varying levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.

In the very high emissions scenario, global heating is predicted to rise 4.4C above pre-industrial level and the report stressed that even with new drastic global measures enacted to limit greenhouse emissions we would still likely see a 1.5C rise in global temperatures in the next two decades.

The report found that even a rise of 0.5C would cause a significant and discernable increase in the severity and frequency of heatwaves, floods, droughts and other extreme weather events.

There was some good news in the report however, stating that a drastic cut in emissions may result in a levelling out in global warming after the 1.5C rise.

The Ecological Threat Register 2020 found that 141 countries will be exposed to at least one ecological threat before 2050, and that more than 1 billion people live in countries that will not be able to adapt and react from the ecological threats these countries are expected to suffer 2050.

The effects of these events will be profound for individuals but will also affect the stability and viability of many governments, potentially causing armed conflicts and refugee crisis.

Download: 2021 Ecological Threat Register