IEA: Business complacent about climate change

2013-02-10 09:34 by Anja Reitz

Speaking at an event in London last night, Birol said the danger of sleepwalking into 4°C was worthy of great concern.

Temperature increases above 2°C are likely to trigger dangerous warming according to climate scientists.

“4°C is better than 6°C but it is still horrible. The implications of that are a drastic increase in extreme weather events, sea level rise and temperature increases and acidification of the oceans,” said Birol.

“Many people to my surprise, during the climate change discussions in Davos, people who are very much engaged in the climate science debate from the energy and business sector, don’t seem uncomfortable with the 4°C trajectory. This is very bad,” he said.

Birol chaired a session at the WEF meeting in Davos on global energy with Majid Jafar, the managing director of Dana Gas in the UAE, Sam Laidlaw, CEO of the UK’s Centrica utility and Robert D. Hormats, US Undersecretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs.

“It is a very worrying trend that people are thinking ‘we can’t expect to limit it to 2°C, but at least four is not as bad as six, we can live with that’,” added Birol.

Warnings of temperature rises have become increasingly severe in recent months.

The World Bank released a report on the dangers of a 4°C world prior to the UN climate change negotiations in Doha last year while consultancy firm PwC predicted the planet is on track for a 6°C rise.

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Source: Responding to Climate Change - Last updated on 8 February 2013, 5:39 pm

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