Jim Skea, CCC committee member and vice-chair of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Working Group III, set out the CCC’s response to the third IPCC report:
Professor Skea said:
“The evidence is clear: sticking to business as usual will lead to temperature rises of three to five degrees above pre-industrial levels. This will potentially lead to catastrophic effects on water resources and agricultural productivity, and accelerate sea level rise.
“Hitting the two-degree target has not been ruled out, but the IPCC has concluded in its report that major changes would be needed to energy systems, requiring technological and institutional change on a massive scale.
“This could imply a tripling or quadrupling, by 2050, of cleaner electricity sources such as renewables, nuclear or fossil fuels, along with carbon capture and storage, and the aggressive pursuit of energy efficiency opportunities.”
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