Urgent action to reduce climate risk includes EVs

A collective effort involving every sector of the economy, every community, and almost every government agency and their minister will be needed to avert a climate crisis, Climate Change minister James Shaw says.

Responding to the release of the latest scientific evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warning of “unprecedented” global climate change, Shaw says ministers (including transport) and agencies are considering action they can take for an Emissions Reduction Plan, which includes policies like the Clean Car scheme.

The findings from thousands of scientists and reviewers from more than 100 countries (including New Zealand) provide the starkest warning yet of the risk facing our children, our planet, and future generations, unless urgent action is taken, Shaw says.

Since its establishment in 1988, the IPCC has released five assessment reports, each of which updates the established science on climate change.

Its newly released sixth report states “unprecedented” human-made heat is already here, along with floods and other extremes.

The window to stay inside 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than pre-industrial times, as most countries are aiming to do, is rapidly closing, Shaw explains.

That threshold will likely be crossed not long after 2030. Even under the most optimistic projections, Earth will overshoot 1.5C – though with dramatic carbon cuts, this could only be temporary, he adds.

Every fraction of a degree of extra warming will cause more extreme heat waves, heavy rain, drought and sea level rise. Tropical cyclones and wildfires are also expected to worsen, although with very low emissions, air quality could improve within just a few years.

The IPCC report also sets the scene for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on October 31 to November 12 with some other countries already promising tougher measures.

Without action, a baby born today is likely to see global temperatures tip into more dangerous levels of warming – beyond 2C – before their 40th birthday, the IPCC report says.