No momento decisivo das alterações climáticas onde a
desflorestação tem que ser radicalmente parada, Bolsonaro quer entregar a
Amazônia, santuário do Planeta, à exploração comercial …
OVOODOCORVO
Afirmou que a “Amazônia não é nossa”, e defendeu a abertura
da região para exploração. “Aquilo é vital para o mundo”, disse. "A
Amazônia não é nossa e é com muita tristeza que eu digo isso, mas é uma
realidade e temos como explorar em parcerias essa região”.
Em encontro com empresários, Bolsonaro indica ser favorável
à exploração comercial da Amazônia
Recursos naturais estariam avaliados em até US$ 5 trilhões
Why the next three months are crucial for the future of the
planet
Two forthcoming major climate talks offer governments an
opportunity to respond to this year’s extreme weather with decisive action
Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent
Fri 5 Oct 2018 11.13 BST Last modified on Fri 5 Oct 2018
11.15 BST
Two men row a boat through a flooded paddy field next to an
inundated structure in Alappuzha in the southern state of Kerala, India.
Kerala suffered its
worst monsoon in nearly a century in August. It was just one of many extreme
weather events around the world this year. Photograph: Aijaz Rahi/AP
The warning signals of climate change that have hit people
around the world in the last few months must be heeded by national governments
at key meetings later this year, political leaders and policy experts are
urging, as the disruption from record-breaking weather continues in many
regions.
Extreme weather events have struck around the world – from
the drought and record temperatures in northern Europe, to forest fires in the
US, to heatwaves and drought in China, to an unusually strong monsoon that has
devastated large areas of southern India.
As the northern hemisphere summer closes, polar observations
have just established that the Arctic sea ice narrowly missed a record low this
year. The sea ice extent was tied for the sixth lowest on record with 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.
“Put simply, in the
last 10 years the Arctic is melting faster than it ever has previously since
records began,” said Julienne Stroeve, professor at University College London.
“We have lost over half of the summer sea ice coverage since the late 1970’s and
it is realistic to expect an ice-free Arctic sea in summer in the next few
decades.”
Of particular concern is the decline in thick ice which
forms over several years. “The older ice has been replaced by more and more
first-year ice, which is easier to melt out each summer,” she explained.
Not all of the effects of this year’s extraordinary weather,
which has also seen the UK’s joint hottest summer on record, can be traced
directly to climate change. However, scientists are clear that the background
of a warming planet has made extremes of temperature, and accompanying droughts
and floods, more likely.
This week, scientists are gathering in South Korea to draw
together the last five years of advances in climate science to answer key
questions for policymakers. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) celebrates its 30th birthday this year with what is likely to be a
landmark report to be released on Monday 8 October. What is expected to emerge
will be the strongest warning yet that these unusual occurrences will add up to
a pattern that can only be overcome with drastic action.
Thousands of the world’s leading climate experts collaborate
on the periodic reports, released roughly every half-decade. They have grown
clearer over the years in the certainty of their evidence that climate change
is occurring as a result of human actions, and firmer in their warnings of the
disruptive consequences.
This time, the scientists will attempt to answer whether and
how the world can meet the “aspiration” set in the Paris agreement of 2015 to
hold warming to no more than 1.5C, beyond which many low-lying states and
islands are likely to face dangerous sea level rises.
When the scientists deliver their verdict, the onus will
pass to politicians to translate their advice into concrete action. Already in
recent weeks, global initiatives have begun aimed at doing so: the Global
Climate Action Summit in San Francisco last month spurred protests, and dozens
of local governments and multinational companies to make pledges; the second
One Planet Summit saw advances in climate finance; while at the UN General
Assembly, secretary general António Guterres urged world leaders to step up,
calling climate change “the defining issue of our time”.
Evidence showing that tackling climate change can be an
economic boost rather than a brake has been growing. The recently published New
Climate Economy report says more than 65m new low-carbon jobs could be created
in just over a decade, and that 700,000 premature deaths from air pollution
could be avoided every year by government action on climate change. A further
$2.8tn could be added to government revenues by 2030 by reforming perverse
incentives to burn fossil fuels.
Nicholas Stern, co-chair of the Global Commission on the
Economy and Climate, which produced the study, said: “Current economic models
fail to capture both the powerful dynamics and very attractive qualities of new
technologies and structures [that reduce carbon]. Thus we know that we are
grossly underestimating the benefits of this new growth story. Further, it
becomes ever clearer that the risks of the damage from climate change are
immense, and tipping points and irreversibilities getting ever closer.”
The existence of tipping points – thresholds of temperature
beyond which certain natural processes become irreversible, such as the melting
of permafrost, which may release the greenhouse gas methane and create runaway
warming effects – is a key concern of many climate scientists. The faster emissions
rise, the sooner we may unwittingly pass some of these key points.
For all these reasons, the IPCC’s special report comes at a
crucial point. Scientists and economists have warned that if the world cannot
shift course within the next few years, the consequences will be dire, as new
infrastructure built now – in energy generation, transport and the built
environment – will be made either to low-emissions standards or in the
high-emissions habits of the past. As the IPCC’s next comprehensive assessment of
climate science will not be available until 2021, this year’s report will be
vital in shaping policy.
Ted Chaiban, director of programmes at Unicef, urged
governments to seize the opportunities for action offered by this year’s series
of political meetings offers for action. “Over the past few months, we have
seen a stark vision of the world we are creating for future generations,” he
said. “As more extreme weather events increase the number of emergencies and
humanitarian crises, it is children who will pay the highest price,” he said.
“It is vital that governments and the international
community take concrete steps. The worst impacts of climate change are not
inevitable, but the time for action is now.”
After the IPCC publication, the world will face a key test
of faith in the 2015 Paris agreement, the only global pact stipulating action
on temperature rises. This December in Poland, the UN’s climate change arm will
hold a two-week meeting aimed at turning the political resolve reached in Paris
three years ago into a set of rules for countries to follow on reducing
emissions.
The political situation is more fraught than it was in the
runup to Paris. The US is pulling out of the landmark climate agreement and is
likely to play little part in the talks. Australia’s government is also in
turmoil over climate actions. Now the challenger for Brazil’s presidency, Jair
Bolsonaro, is threatening to withdraw its participation – a potential blow to
the Paris consensus, as Brazil was a linchpin among rapidly developing nations.
All eyes will be on China, which has shown remarkable
progress on renewable energy and emissions reduction, and India, where climate
champions have found common cause with opponents of increasingly damaging air
pollution. Patricia Espinsoa, the UN’s top climate official, warned that only
“uneven progress” had been made so far on the 300-page rulebook for
implementing the Paris targets, leaving the rest of the work for December.
While the dangerous weather of the first half of 2018 has
raised concerns worldwide that we are seeing climate change in action, many
leading experts told the Guardian they were optimistic that political and
business leaders this year would help set the world on a different course to
avoid the worse predictions of untrammelled warming.
Achim Steiner, administrator of the UN Development Programme,
said the past few years had seen “extraordinary progress” in areas such as
renewable energy and the take-up of low-carbon technology: “This is real, not
in the future but happening now. We are showing that we can do this, we can
bring down emissions, it doesn’t need to be a disaster.”
Adopting low-carbon aims now would set developing countries
on a course to a brighter future, added Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former economic
minister of Nigeria and a member of the Global Commission on the Economy and
Climate. “Now is the time to do this, before we lock in high-carbon
infrastructure,” she said. “Now is the opportunity for real sustainable
growth.”
Political leaders will find that global investors back them
up in opting for low-carbon policies, predicted Frank Rijsberman of the Global
Green Growth Institute. “I see this from investors, from businesses,” he said.
“They are ready, and they see low-carbon as the future.”
Felipe Calderón, former president of Mexico, called on
political leaders to take note: “We can turn better [economic] growth and a
better climate into reality. It is time we decisively legislate, innovate,
govern and invest our way to a fairer, safer, more sustainable world.”
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