ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have said that a crucial UN report on climate change due to be published on Monday should fuel increased ambition from the Scottish Government.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C is widely expected to say that all governments need to ramp up their action over the next decade if the world is to avoid 1.5C of warming.
Campaign groups are expected to lobby the SNP conference on Monday to take their message directly to party members.
Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) climate campaigner, Caroline Rance, said global warming would have the biggest impact on developing countries.
She said: “The report is expected to detail the catastrophic impacts that will be experienced at 1.5 degrees of warming.
“This would mean a worsening of severe climate impacts all over the world but hitting developing countries and the most vulnerable people hardest.
“This year’s record-breaking summer in Europe, deadly wildfires in Greece, California and Sweden, typhoons in the Philippines and Japan have brought home the reality of what we can expect in our future.
“This report is likely to be the strongest ever about the necessity of urgent and wide-ranging changes needed to cut emissions around the world.
“In Scotland this means we need an immediate end to exploration for new oil and gas, urgent delivery in areas such as home energy efficiency and support for farmers to move to climate-friendly methods of agriculture.
"The Climate Bill being considered by MSPs currently doesn’t deliver Scotland’s fair share of global efforts to keep temperature rises below 1.5C." Rance added: "It doesn’t meet the First Minister’s promise to act in line with the historic Paris Climate Agreement.
“It also commits to almost no new action in the crucial next decade up to 2030.
“The Scottish Government must use this report to increase our collective action to further protect Scotland, to ensure that we reap the benefits of the transition to the zero carbon economy and do our fair share of the work needed to avert catastrophe.”
It is no secret that extreme weather has affected many parts of the world – heavy rain and strong winds have resulted in weather warnings across Scotland and the UK, there has been drought and record temperatures in northern Europe, forest fires in the US, heatwaves and drought in China and an unusually strong monsoon that has devastated large parts of southern India.
As summer comes to an end in the northern hemisphere, polar observations have established that the Arctic Sea ice narrowly missed a record low – the extent of sea ice was tied with the sixth lowest on record for 2008 and 2010.
Sea currents and wind conditions can have large effects on sea ice extent from year to year, but the trend is starkly evident.
Professor Julienne Stroeve, from University College London, said: “Put simply, in the last 10 years the Arctic is melting faster than it ever has previously since records began.
“We have lost over half of the summer sea ice coverage since the late 1970s and it is realistic to expect an ice-free Arctic sea in summer in the next few decades.”
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