UN: Experts and Governments To Make a Report on Global Warming

Environmental experts, scientists, and governments held a summit on Monday to issue a major UN report aimed to analyze the consequences of global warming and how it affects people's lives, the environment, and the Earth itself.

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Every five to seven years, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, composed of hundreds of the world's top scientists, rules extensive reports on climate change. The most recent update is expected to be finished by the end of February, which will gather how climate change already affects humans and the planet, what to expect in the future, and the risks and benefits of adapting to a warmer world.

"We're concerned that the physical climate around us is changing," said Debra Roberts, panel co-chair. "But for most people in their day-to-day lives... they want to know: so what? What does it mean for their lives, their aspirations, their jobs, their families, the places where they live," noted the South African environmental scientist.

She disclosed the report features seven regional chapters "about how physical changes in the climate change people's lives," emphasizing cities. "The IPCC's horrifying evidence of escalating climate impacts is set to show a nightmare painted in the dry language of science," said in a statement Teresa Anderson, head of climate justice issues at ActionAid International.

Given the intense negotiation process between the authors and governments, which will take at least two weeks, a scientist will not underscore the report's details yet. As consensus is needed for the final version, some drafts must be changed before it is publicly released on February 28.
 
The first of the three reports, released last August, prompted the UN to declare "code red," underlining the physical science of climate change; otherwise, the third report coming out in March will specify what can be done to curb and adapt to global warming.

"We are losing living spaces for species and ourselves as well," said co-chair Hans-Otto Poertner, a German biologist said in a press briefing last week. "Because with climate change, some parts of the planet would become uninhabitable."

"In some countries in the Northern Hemisphere, there has been an assumption (of) 'Oh, well, if we cannot control climate change, we just let it go and we adapt to it. So we adapt out of the impacts of climate change," Poertner noted. "And this is certainly a very illusionary approach."

According to the extreme weather already seen in parts of the world in recent years, it is seen how urgent it is for governments to address the rising consequences of climate change.