The U.N. Closes January 2014 With Ambitions on Climate Change

By Jonathan Rozen Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31 2014 (IPS) - On January 30, 2014 the United Nations backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its complete Working Group 1 fifth assessment report, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon both invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the September Climate Summit in New York, and opened the inaugural meeting of the high level U.N. Scientific Advisory Board for sustainable development.

The complete IPCC report, which followed a summary report for policy makers released in September 2013, reaffirms the connection between human activity and climate change.

“The climate is changing across our planet, largely as a result of human activities,” the report states, reconfirming that “atmospheric concentrations of important green house gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased over the last few centuries.”

The report indicates that a rise in the average temperature of the earth’s oceans, as well as a significant reduction of most ice masses mark just a sample of the multiple lines of evidence for climate change found by the IPCC.

The IPCC also predicted that changes to the earth’s climate, both natural and human induced, have the ability to cause drastic changes in the likelihood and strength of extreme weather and climate events.

Ban’s invitation to the German Chancellor represents his desire to bring the world’s leading figures together on the issue of the climactic conditions. The summit will “mobilize action and political will for the new climate change agreement that the world so desperately needs,” stated Ban.

During his address, Ban also linked the importance of sustainable development with the reduction of inequality and eradication of extreme poverty.

“We have to weigh the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development equally, under a single agenda,” adding, “that is why I will host a Climate Summit on September 23rd for global leaders from government, business, finance, and civil society.”