The IPCC’s latest report (PDF summary for policymakers) says that the world has to make significant cuts in gas emissions through increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and vehicles, shifting from fossil fuels to renewable fuels, and reforming both the forestry and farming sectors, AP reports (via The Washington Post).
Under the most stringent scenario, the report said the world must stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2015 _ eight years from now _ at 445 parts per million to keep global temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees over preindustrial levels.
According to the report, reaching the lowest targets could be done at less than three percent of the global gross domestic product by 2030 _ or 0.12 annually, which could debunk arguments by skeptics that combatting global warming was too costly.
Webcast of the press conference.
This is the third report from IPCC this year.
The first report unanimously portrayed the science of global warming as an existing and worsening threat. The panel attributed global warming to man-made burning of fossil fuels and connected it to a recent increase in stronger hurricanes. In particular, the report said global warming was “very likely” man-made.
The second report said that that the earth’s climate and ecosystems are already being affected, for better and mostly for worse, by global warming.