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The low-lying Maldives is one of the countries most threatened by global warming.
Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of The Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, issued a warning on behalf of nearly 50 countries most affected by climate change that if no action is taken, these countries will be pushed to the “edge of extinction.”
World leaders such as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the report as “a headshot” to the world, but the most threatened developing countries responded more strongly to the report.
Nasheed said: “The carbon emitted by others costs us our lives.”
The Maldives is the lowest-lying country in the world. Nasheed, who serves as an ambassador for the Climate Vulnerable Forum, said: “The fossil fuels that rich countries burn for consumption and economic growth are killing us people in vulnerable developing countries.”
The forum currently has 48 member states, all of which face threats from rising sea levels, super-large storms or expanding deserts.
Nasheed said: “We will take action soon to respond to this injustice. We cannot accept it.”
17-year-old Heriti lives in the Pacific Cook Islands. She is worried that rising sea levels and pollution are threatening the health of the ocean.
According to the latest IPCC report, heat waves, rainstorms and droughts will become more common and extreme. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the report has sounded the “red alarm for human survival.”
The report believes that there is “unambiguous” evidence that humans are responsible for global warming. In the next 20 years, the earth’s temperature will rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius from the level during the Industrial Revolution, causing sea levels to rise by 0.5 meters, and it is more likely to rise by 2 meters before the end of this century.
Ambassador Diann Black-Layne of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean is the chief climate change negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States. She warned that a sea level rise of this magnitude would cause devastating disasters to low-lying coastal countries.
Ambassador Black-Lane said: “This is our future, right here.”
Because of the new crown pneumonia, countries have implemented dissatisfaction social blockade, which has greatly reduced global carbon emissions. But whether it can be sustained has become questionable.
The IPCC released the report on Monday (August 9), less than three months after the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland (COP26) was held. Prime Minister Johnson, as the head of the host government, said that the content of the report was “satisfying” and showed the need to help countries that are suffering from the consequences of climate change.
Johnson said: “We know what measures must be taken to limit global warming: let coal go into history, switch to clean energy, protect the natural environment, and provide funding to countries on the front lines of climate change.”
According to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, more than 190 governments around the world agreed to limit global warming to an increase of 2 degrees Celsius or even 1.5 degrees Celsius during the industrial revolution. However, the new IPCC report points out that under all assumptions, neither of these two goals will be reached at the end of this century unless carbon emissions are substantially reduced.
John Kerry, the US special envoy for climate issues, believes that to achieve the goal of limiting climate warming, countries all over the world urgently need to change their economic models, and COP26 must become a turning point in this crisis.
Sweden’s climate change protest activist Greta Thunberg described the IPCC report as “confirming what we already knew…we are in a state of emergency”.
Thunberg said on Twitter: “We can still avoid the worst consequences, but we must not maintain the status quo, and we must not take the crisis improperly.”
Thunberg confirmed on Monday that she will attend COP26 and participate in negotiations.