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Montreal, September 27th 2013 - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released today the first of 3 reports from of it's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). This report reflects advances in science that point to increased levels of certainty regarding human-induced climate change.
This most recent report states that it is “very likely” — a figure that corresponds to at least 90% certainty — that human greenhouse gas pollution has caused more than half of observed warming. Scientists are now more certain than ever that observed warming can be attributed primarily to human activities such as deforestation and greenhouse gas pollution. Furthermore, the estimate of the human component of warming has increased over time, while the estimate of the influence of natural factors has decreased.
"Science published since 2007 shows that several climate change indicators are advancing faster than originally thought. Unfortunately, the response from our government, Canada first in line, is not coming even close to helping us slow down the problem, we need action and we need it now!" said Steven Guilbeault, Senior Director of Équiterre.
Some features of the new report:
- Ice sheet melting of ice sheets over the past decade is happening several times faster than it was in the 90s;
- Glacial melt has accelerated as well with glaciers loosing about 259 billion tons of ice per year;
- The Arctic sea retreat rate ice has increased since the 2007 assessment report. Sea levels rose almost twice as fast from 1993 to 2010 as they did from 1901 to 2010;
Équiterre stressed that Quebec and Ottawa need an energy strategy based on reducing our dependency to oil. "We must invest in public transit, electrification of our transportation systems, renewable energy and energy efficiency instead of investing in projects that will increase carbon footprint" added Guilbeault.
The IPCC is a collective of 2500 scientists working with the United Nations and the Fifth Assessment Report is based on 9000 scientifc papers that have been published in the scientific litterature.
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For more information
Julie Tremblay, media relations, Équiterre
514-605-2000 / jtremblay@equiterre.org
