Earth Today | Climate report findings said key to regional resilience
Published:Wednesday | September 26, 2018 | 12:00 AM
HEAD OF the climate branch of the Meteorological Service, Jacqueline Spence has said the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius and the Summary for Policymakers is too important not to fight for.
"We are literally going there to fight. We see before us that it is not going to be pretty," she told The Gleaner of the approval plenary of the 48th session of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) set for Korea between October 1 and 5.
"I don't think we have ever been so anxious about a meeting. We have fought for this document from the beginning and even then, countries were trying to stop the document from being done," added Spence, who is also Jamaica's climate change focal point for the IPCC.
Given what is at stake - from the case for at least attempting to cap temperature increases at 1.5 degrees and certainly no more than two degrees, to securing financial, techno-logical and other support for developing countries and, in particular SIDS that are especially vulnerable to climate change - it is a fight, she said, that SIDS and other developing countries cannot afford to lose.
Jamaica and other CARICOM members are expected to meet to strategise ahead of the meeting and have reportedly been reaching out to collaborators and potential supporters globally.
"The greatest thing we have to rely on is the support of other countries who will support us along the way," Spence noted.
According to information from the IPCC website, the report has already undergone two formal review stages: the expert review of the First Order Draft from 31 July to 24 September 2017, and the government and expert review of the Second Order Draft from 8 January to 25 February 2018 - in line with their procedures.
This review of the final draft is the final step in the process.
"Chapter drafts have been finalised and key findings have been distilled into the Summary for Policymakers," Valerie Masson-Delmotte, co-chair of IPCC Working Group I, is quoted as saying in a June 4 IPCC press release on the report.
"Governments will now review the report that we have prepared following their invitation to the IPCC in December 2015, at COP21," she added.