Between the multiplication of reports on the climate change and the appearance of other emergencies, such as the covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, it is possible that public opinion has lost sensitivity and reflexes before the appearance of new news about the deteriorating health of the planet. However, the evaluation report presented this Monday by the United Nations intergovernmental group of experts should draw our attention and confirm the need for urgent and decisive measures aimed at curbing global warming. Indeed, it is not just another document, but rather the conclusions reached by 270 scientists from 67 countries after reviewing tens of thousands of pages of papers dedicated to studying the impact that human activity is already having, not only on climate, but also on people, other species and the whole ecosystem. A devastating report, which the Secretary General of the UN himself, Antonio Guterresdescribed as “Atlas of human suffering” in his presentation.
The main conclusion of the report – which is added to the one presented six months ago on the physical bases of climate change – is that the increase in temperature of more than one degree that has occurred in the last century has left in a situation of extreme vulnerability to about half of the world’s population. There are about 3,500 million people, which could be much more if the increase in the planet’s temperature cannot be contained below 1.5 degrees Celsius as established by the Paris Agreement. The consequences of this inability to keep commitments set by the successive climatic summits are known to all: warming of the atmosphere, the oceans and the earth, in such a way that the losses in biodiversity are already irreparable, decreased production of staple foods (wheat, rice, and maize), increased extreme weather events, and multiplication of new health threats. It is also accepted by increasingly broad sectors of the population and by the majority of political managers that this emergency situation is caused by irresponsible human behavior and development model in need of a profound review. The novelty of this latest report lies in the emphasis it places on the lopsided effects of climate change, since most of the 3.5 billion people who make up this atlas of human suffering live in Africa and in underdeveloped countries in the southern hemisphere.
Although the report rightly insists that the cost of inaction would end up being greater than the cost of the action required to put an end to environmental degradation, the truth is that the measures to be adopted to face complex energy transitions are costly and not very compatible with the accumulation of budgetary demands that derive from the need to recover from the pandemic crisis and, now, help Ukraine, face the Russian threat and assume the costs of sanctions and distortions in the world trade of the conflict. Like the decision announced by the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to provide the German Army with an extraordinary item of 100,000 million euros for its modernization. However, this is the world in which we have had to live, and dealing with the risks linked to the maintenance of peace and an international order that respects the sovereignty of countries cannot make us divert from the enormous challenge that humanity has to ensure his survival.