Latest IPCC report: time is running out
Humankind is neither limiting climate change nor prepared for its consequences - this is the sobering conclusion of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. The report also warns that there is little time left to avoid the most severe consequences of extreme weather and collapsing ecosystems, and that the efforts so far are entirely inadequate, with the window of opportunity fast closing. Europe's press is alarmed.
Heads still buried in the sand
The Guardian laments:
“The Ukraine crisis is showing that governments will spend vast sums of money to address a threat deemed serious enough. ... It's a pity that a similar sum could not be found over a decade to help vulnerable nations deal with the climate crisis. African countries will spend, it is reckoned, an average of 4% of GDP on adapting to climate breakdown. What is needed is to find a way of living our lives that combines social justice with ecological sustainability. Depressingly, the IPCC reveals that the search has still not properly begun.”
Don't lose sight of global warming
Other acute threats should not make us forget the importance of climate protection, which is about the survival of humanity, El Periódico de Catalunya warns:
“What is certain is that the measures to cope with the complex energy transition are costly and incompatible with the accumulating demands on the budget: dealing with the pandemic crisis, supporting Ukraine, responding to the Russian threat and bearing the cost of sanctions and the consequences for global trade. ... Managing the risks associated with maintaining peace and an international order that respects the sovereignty of countries must not distract us from the great challenge facing humanity to ensure its survival.”
Fossil fuels not only harmful for the climate
The energy transition must not suffer as a result of the reaction to Putin's aggression, stresses the Frankfurter Rundschau:
“On the contrary, it must be accelerated. Until now, the Europeans have financed Russia's rearmament through fossil energy supplies. The money for natural gas, oil and coal is the fuel for the aggression. But by now everyone should have realised that this relationship must be ended as soon as possible. The German government is on the right course with its plans to expand renewable energies even faster.”