A UN report has revealed that the world is set to exceed
1.5 degrees of global temperature increase, as Greenpeace
condemns the New Zealand Government for pouring fuel on the
escalating climate crisis.
The report finds that even
under the most optimistic scenario, global temperatures are
expected to peak at around 1.8°C above pre-industrial
levels before declining. Other scenarios see temperatures
rising even further.
Greenpeace spokesperson Gen Toop
says the findings make the Coalition Government’s track
record on climate policy utterly indefensible.
“This
report shows that all governments must act immediately to
limit the time earth spends above 1.5°C and bring warming
back below that level as quickly as possible.”
“At
precisely the moment governments should be slamming the
brakes on fossil fuels and intensive livestock farming, the
Coalition Government has put its foot on the accelerator and
is driving us off a cliff.”
“It has spent its time in
power tearing apart climate protections, and expanding the
very industries driving the crisis.”
The report warns
that above 1.5°C, climate impacts will intensify with every
additional fraction of a degree and every year spent above
the threshold. These include increasingly severe extreme
weather, ecosystem loss, rising seas threatening Small
Island Developing States and low-lying coastal cities,
alongside escalating damage to human health, food and water
security, infrastructure and economies.
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“People are
already paying for the climate crisis with their lives,”
says Toop.
“We have just seen the devastating
consequences of a warming world in Nepal and China following
last week’s catastrophic glacial flood.
“Every
fraction of a degree matters. Every tonne of coal, oil and
gas kept in the ground matters. Every industrial livestock
farm conversion prevented matters.
“And against this
latest scientific backdrop, every decision this Government
has made to increase climate pollution becomes even more
indefensible.”
Since taking office, the Coalition
Government has reversed the ban on new offshore oil and gas
exploration, enabled a swathe of new dairy conversions in
Canterbury, weakened New Zealand’s climate targets,
pursued a new LNG import terminal and committed hundreds of
millions of dollars in subsidies for the fossil fuel
industry.
Greenpeace says these are not isolated
decisions, but a clear pattern of the Government taking New
Zealand backwards on climate
action.
