UN climate report – “we cannot play a waiting game”

A long-awaited United Nations (UN) report on the mitigation of climate change is urging all countries “to act swiftly and boldly” to reach a “global, ambitious and legal [climate] agreement in 2015″.

The report, which suggests that we need to treble the use of wind and solar power,  acknowledges that global greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise at an accelerated pace.

It concludes that urgent action is needed to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius, and that action now will be far less costly than postponing action for the future.

In a statement issued at UN Headquarters, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, said: “We cannot play a waiting game where we bet on future technological miracles to emerge and save the day – and why would we?”

According to the UN, to keep the rise in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius requires the lowering of greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 70% compared with 2010 by mid-century, and to near-zero by the end of this century.