Hon James Shaw

Minister for Climate Change


08 October 2018 MEDIA STATEMENT

PĀNUI PĀPĀHO
International global warming report lays out the critical challenge

A special report on global warming, released today, has laid out a strong case for countries to make every effort to limit temperature rise to 1.5o Celsius above pre-industrial levels, says the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw.

“The special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that a host of climate-related risks; from sea level rise, to food and water supplies, security, and health issues will be worse if global temperatures rise to 2o rather than 1.5o.

“The report also warns that the next two decades are crucial in limiting global warming to 1.5oC as opposed to 2oC, with the IPCC saying that it is likely that global warming will reach 1.5oC between 2030 and 2052, if warming continues at the current rate.

“The good news is that the IPCC’s report is broadly in line with this Government’s direction on climate change and it’s highly relevant to the work we are doing with the Zero Carbon Bill.

“The report shows the clear global benefits of maintaining efforts to limit global warming to 1.5oC.

“It says the goal is challenging but achievable but it also says that the pace of transition to low-emissions needs to step-up and be far reaching,” James Shaw says.

Bronwyn Hayward, Associate Professor in Political Science at Canterbury University, was a Lead Author for the report.

Andy Reisinger, Deputy Director of the NZ Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre is a member of the IPCC Bureau.

NZ Government departments have reviewed drafts of the report.

And a NZ delegation was present at IPCC talks on the report in South Korea last week.

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