This week as part of its Climate Action Week, Trinity Environmental Society held the next instalment of its WTF Was That series on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report.
The report was published last week by the United Nations to illustrate our damning effect on the environment. It outlines how we need to reduce our emissions substantially over the next 12 years. If global warming exceeds 1.5 degrees, it will “significantly worsen the risks of climate change effects such as floods, extreme heat, droughts and poverty for hundreds of millions of people”, according to the report.
The event was held in the Atrium, but with interests for an event of this kind at an all-time high and with the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) holding an entire Green Day today, the room was packed with students. The interest is no surprise, however, as students are the ones who will have to deal with the consequences of climate change and global warming more than any generation above us. At one stage during the event, there was a small queue forming to gain entry while other students were taking up every available space in the room including sitting on floors, chairs and tables.
The society began the evening with a slideshow illustrating different aspects of the report. They explained how nothing presented in the report had low confidence, meaning all the details are very likely, if not extremely likely, to happen. A frightening fact stated was that if we were to completely stop emitting any form of Greenhouse Gases to our environment, sea levels would not stop rising until 2100. Another worrying statistic was that one kilogram of methane causes 25 times more warming over a 100 year period compared to one kilogram of CO2.
The society also did a myth-busting segment, attempting to clear up some of the reporting that had been done on the issues mentioned in the report. With the Guardian and others reporting that we only have 12 years to limit a climate change catastrophe, the society explained that in reality there is a bit more wriggle room. Carbon emissions must be dropped by 45 per cent by 2030. If the current problems continue until 2050, then it will be really time to worry.
One thing which actually proved accurate was how 100 companies in the world are responsible for 70 per cent of all emissions, with China Coal being responsible for 14.3 per cent of all greenhouse gases in the world.
Discussing the Paris Agreement, a non-legally binding agreement between states to reduce emissions, it was pointed out that Ireland had only managed to reduce its emissions by one per cent. A far cry from the 20 per cent it had agreed to drop by 2020. In previous years, a large amount of the country’s reduction in greenhouse gases was more so due to the recession and lack of construction then it was by deliberate government intervention.
Ireland’s relationship with greenhouse gases, for such a small country, seemed only to get worse as the talk went on. Ireland’s current target is to decrease emissions by one million tonnes a year. So far, we have increased emissions by two million tonnes a year.
However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. The event ended with how we can help stop some of the more disastrous effects of global warming. People have to believe what their doing is credible and will make a difference. Every region in the world is different, so a blanket solution will not suffice. Each individual needs to change in some way, either by reducing meat consumption by 30 per cent or dropping their carbon footprint by walking to college or using reusable plastics.
