The new landmark IPCC report on oceans released today shows that oceans are poised to turn into a huge threat to humanity unless we massively scale up emission cuts in line with the goal to keep temperature rise to 1.5°C.
Commenting on the report, Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said:
“Without much deeper cuts to emissions, the growing threat of superstorms, rising seas, melting glaciers and permafrost will imperil hundreds of millions of people. The destruction will be far worse if governments don’t adopt more ambitious goals for reducing carbon pollution. So far the responses from European leaders to the climate crisis have been maddeningly slow. After underwhelming commitments made at the UN Climate Action Summit, the EU needs to speed up its work towards adopting a more ambitious climate target by early next year. Bringing it in line with the Paris Agreement’s target to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C will require emissions to be reduced by 65% by 2030.”
Maike Recktenwald, who is affected by sea level rise in her homeland Langeoog, Germany and took the EU to ask for higher 2030 climate target said:
“IPCC’s special report on oceans makes it clear that sea level rise caused by the climate crisis brings a huge risk for islanders, such as our community on Langeoog in Germany. The threat of sea breaking through the dunes and spoiling our fresh water reservoir gets more acute. Every year, the beach gets smaller because of the storm tides which carry away the sand. We took the EU to court over the insufficiency of its 2030 climate target to protect our livelihoods and fundamental rights. IPCC’s special report should be a sounding alarm for the EU leaders to do more to protect us from the climate crisis and guarantee our fundamental rights.”
ENDS
Ania Drazkiewicz, CAN Europe Head of Communications, ania@caneurope.org, +32 494 525 738
Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe is Europe’s leading NGO coalition fighting dangerous climate change. With over 160 member organisations from 35 European countries, representing over 1.700 NGOs and more than 47 million citizens, CAN Europe promotes sustainable climate, energy and development policies throughout Europe.
