US, Russia succeed in keeping IPCC report out of climate deal

The United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait succeeded in preventing the inclusion of a key and the most recent scientific assessment of the possible impact of global warming in the final agreement at the UN climate change talks in Poland. 

Despite recognising that the October assessment by UN climate science panel Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) encapsulates the “best available science” in the final decision, countries opted to focus on the IPCC’s ability to be punctual while putting together a work programme to make the 2015 Paris climate pact operational. 

In its “special report” on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius, IPCC has called for rapid and profound reduction of emissions of heat trapping or greenhouse gases to limit the adverse impacts of unchecked temperature rise. 

“It was beyond disappointing that all countries were not able to welcome the IPCC report on 1.5°C in Katowice,” said Ethiopian negotiator Gebru Jember Endalew, chair of the Least Developed Countries Group that includes 47 economies. “We cannot ignore its findings, and we absolutely must not ignore its recommendations. We must — and, importantly, we can — limit warming to 1.5°C, and that means making transformative changes across all aspects of society,” he said. 

The IPCC report warns of a small window of about 12 years for countries to act to slow down global warming. 

Given the steadfast efforts by the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait to prevent any strong or robust acknowledgement of IPCC’s special report on the impacts of an increase in temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius, the final deal in Poland asks countries to “make use” of the information contained in the report. 

Experts, however, said a formal and unequivocal recognition of the special report on 1.5°C would help strengthen the call for countries to increase their climate action, particularly those that would help reduce the production of heat-trapping or greenhouse gases. 

“My biggest concern is that the UN summit failed to align ambitions with science, in particular, missing the necessity of making clear global emissions from fossil fuels must be cut by half by 2030 to stay in line with the IPCC 1.5°C report, ” said Johan Rockström, designate co-director of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.