This agreement will initiate a technology change, which includes the increasing farewell to fossil fuels and the transition to sustainable management. With these words, AWI researcher Hans-Otto Pörtner commented on the conclusion of the first global climate protection agreement in Paris.
Pörtner had followed the discussions in Paris as IPCC delegate and emphasized the importance of common climate targets during several lectures and expert discussions. Upon conclusion of the Paris Agreement last Saturday the Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II said:
"The international community has taken an ambitious agreement on climate protection and set a long-term climate goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 °C, preferably 1.5 °C. The countries acted on the IPCC findings that the negative impacts and risks of climate change on ecosystems and humans rise significantly between 1.5 and 2 °C. Even if successfully implemented, we will not avoid negative impacts in future, however we may limit them.
This agreement will initiate a technology change, which includes the increasing farewell to fossil fuels and the transition to sustainable management. At the same time, all countries must soon be able to cover their energy demand by renewable energy sources. The Paris Agreement outlines a high urgency; we must lose no time to take the necessary measures. The IPCC will play an important role to support this process: strategy impacts and expected climate scenarios must be identified, projected and compared. Solutions must be identified which include adaptation strategies to inevitable climate change as well as the use of technologies to reduce - if not even to stop - climate warming."
At the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris last weekend all participating 195 countries agreed by contract to make efforts in the fight against global warming.
(sl)