Canada Welcomes IPCC Synthesis Report with Plans to "Turn the Corner"

Environmental Minister John Baird applauded the latest report released last Friday from Valencia, Spain, stating that “the timing of this report couldn’t be better”.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their fourth summary to synthesize the conclusions of the previous three summary reports.

As has been widely talked about over the weekend, the IPCC’s findings reflect an urgency for concerted, aggressive, and coherent global action to mitigate what the report firmly states is now “unequivocal” global warming as evidenced “from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising average sea level…”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called on both the United States and China to take decisive action to slow their carbon emissions, saying that “both countries can lead in their own way”.

Baird commented on Friday that both he and Prime Minister Harper understand this urgency and the need for global action to mitigate the worst effects of global warming.

In April Baird announced the “Turning the Corner” plan for Canada to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 and 60–70% by 2050.

Many scientists are now saying that global greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced by up to 80% by 2050 to effectively forestall the most catastrophic consequences of climate change expected by the end of this century. 

What is becoming clearer and may not be entirely reflected in this synthesis report is the speed with which changes in climate are occuring, faster than scientists originally projected, as has been shown in recent months by the unprecedented Arctic ice melt and the accelerated rate of growing world carbon emissions.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meets next month in Bali with the aim of developing a post-Kyoto framework for dealing with climate climate change. The IPCC report released last week will serve as a guiding document as officials work out policy to implement after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

We’ll keep you informed as the process unfolds in the coming weeks

Sources and Further Reading:
NewsWire
Huffington Post

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