Climate crisis | ‘Heavy’ debate delays IPCC report

The difficult discussions delayed approval of the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by 48 hours, and thus its publication was postponed in the middle of Monday.

Jean Thomas Léveillé
Journalism

About 270 authors and representatives from 195 member countries met for two weeks, and were tentatively scheduled to finish Friday by approving, line by line, the content of the “Decision Makers Summary” of the nearly 3,000-page report on solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the atmosphere.

The discussions were sometimes “hot”, according to what she was told Journalism A source who attended the exercise, but was not authorized to speak about it publicly, extended until late Sunday evening Geneva time.

Publication of the document resulting from the IPCC Working Group III, which was tentatively scheduled for Monday morning, has been postponed to 5:00 pm Geneva time (11:00 am Montreal time), with the report to be approved first by before a vote in plenary.

He said the “large” amount of information in the report made disagreements inevitable Journalism A second source attended the discussions but was not authorized to speak about them publicly.

Clashes arose over issues of financing measures, the place of fossil fuels, carbon capture and sequestration, and even “demand mitigation,” i.e. changes in consumption behaviour.

Oil, gas and meat

Various countries have tried to give the text a tone that is less detrimental to their national interests, explain the sources for this Journalism.

Saudi Arabia, for example, insisted that the text still leaves room for the exploitation of fossil fuels, as reported by the information published by the British daily. Watchman.

Brazil and Argentina, two major beef producers, wanted the report not to refer to the need to adopt a “vegetarian diet,” but rather to a “balanced diet,” a source explains. Journalism.

The United States was selective in the matter of financing, in order not to take responsibility at this point.

Do the changes make the risk mitigate the severity of the report? Maybe it’s his summary, but it’s enough to go and see “in the seasons” to get the right hour, one source estimates Journalismwhich reminds us that the report’s authors keep the last word on its content.

She also noted that many countries, including Canada, have worked to ensure that policymakers’ summary is as close to scientific conclusions as possible.

“Most of the input was helpful,” considers the other source of JournalismWhich indicates, among other things, India’s insistence on the fairness of the measures to be taken.

“Strong, and sometimes tense, debates between state delegates and authors have a great advantage over a report that scholars will write alone, in their ivory tower: a general sense of ownership,” one of the report’s authors wrote Jean-Pascal van Ebersel, professor at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium, On the social network Twitter on Sunday evening.

Hopeful report

Several of the report’s authors expressed their happiness to see it approved and their optimism on social media.

“The IPCC report has just been approved!! 16 days, culminating in nearly 40 hours of negotiation and approval line by line,” said Stephanie Rowe, Senior Climate Scientist at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), describing the moment as a watershed. The culmination of many years of work.

“This report renews the sense of urgency, but also presents (and assesses) several avenues for resolution in the context of sustainable development,” added Professor van Ebersel, who spoke of the longest accreditation session in 34 years of regulatory history.

Despite the sudden outbursts and the resulting delay, this new IPCC report will bring hope, according to sources who attended the discussions.

He will say: “It is possible, within eight years, to cut emissions by half,” he points to one of them, adding that solutions exist and are economically accessible, concluding that “what is lacking, is the political will to adopt these solutions.”