Credit: Istock

Commenting on the publication today (8 October 2018) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the ‘Global Warming of 1.5 °C’, Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said:

“This report makes very clear that there could be very dangerous impacts if warming exceeds 1.5 Celsius degrees, but it is a conservative assessment. The summary for policymakers puzzlingly omits some of the largest risks, such as the potential for climate change to cause population displacements, migration and possibly conflict. It also leaves out potential ‘tipping points’ in the climate system, beyond which impacts become irreversible, unstoppable or accelerate, such as disruption to the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic and shifts in the monsoon in Africa and Asia. Nevertheless, there is more than enough evidence in this report to justify a reversal by President Trump of his policy of inaction on climate change.”

For more information about this media release, please contact Bob Ward on +44 (0) 7811 320346.

 

NOTES FOR EDITORS

  1. The ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (https://www.cccep.ac.uk/) is hosted by the University of Leeds and the London School of Economics and Political Science. It is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (https://www.esrc.ac.uk/). The Centre’s mission is to advance public and private action on climate change through rigorous, innovative research.
  2. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (https://www.lse.ac.uk/grantham) was launched at the London School of Economics and Political Science in October 2008. It is funded by The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment (https://www.granthamfoundation.org/).

 

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