By Nneka Nwogwugwu
South Africa has welcomed the long-awaited sixth assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Ms Barbara Creecy stated on Thursday that the development is an important contribution to enhancing scientific understanding on climate change,that must inform international policy at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.
The assessment report, which was released on Monday is the first in a series of reports to be adopted under the IPCC 6th assessment cycle. In 2022, the IPCC will release the next reports on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; another report dealing with mitigation of climate change; and finally, a synthesis report of the key findings.
The report also highlights and analyses the detail available in terms of climate change in southern Africa, reinforcing existing scientific evidence that the region is likely to become drier, and reductions in precipitation can already be detected.
The report states that droughts will become more frequent at 1.5 °C of global warming, and more so as the level of global warming increases.
It has also long been known that the region is warming drastically, at about twice the global rate of warming. The effects of warming and the limited options for adaptation to new temperatures and rainfall patterns will be assessed in the upcoming Working Group II report to be tabled next year.
“Sustaining the global temperature of 1.5o C by the end of the 21st century will require global scale negative emissions in the second half of the century to reduce atmospheric CO2” said the Minister. “In this regard the work of the Climate Commission to identify pathways for a Just Transition to a low carbon economy and climate resilient society by mid-century has never been more important”.
“Climate action remains a national and international priority. And South Africa remains firmly committed to contributing our best effort towards the global cause of addressing climate change. In this regard we will be submitting our revised Nationally Determined Contribution to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to the UNFCCC ahead of COP 26,” the Minister added.
South Africa supports the common position of the African Group of Negotiators, ahead of COP26, that ambition and climate action need to be dramatically increased to advance all three of the interconnected global goals in the UNFCCC´s Paris Agreement, namely; mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation. In this regard it is urgent that developed countries urgently honour their obligation to provide financial support to developing countries who already face the impact of climate change.