Current plans to address global warming are insufficient, but there are "multiple, feasible and effective options," a United Nations scientific panel said in a report released Monday.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's synthesis report said keeping temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels will take "deep, rapid, and sustained" greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors this decade.
The IPCC report proposes a "climate resilient development" approach that integrates measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions that also benefit society, such as access to clean energy, low-carbon electrification and transport, and improved air quality. Choices made in the next few years will have a critical impact on future generations, it said.
The report was reviewed by hundreds of climate scientists and signed off on by U.N. member nations.
It "underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a livable sustainable future for all," IPCC Chairman Hoesung Lee said in a news release about the report.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the report in a video message Monday as a "how-to guide to defuse the climate time bomb." He has proposed that the G-20 group of highly developed economies sign a Climate Solidarity Pact that would require more action by the biggest emitters and have wealthier countries mobilize financial and technical resources to support emerging economies.
The pact is part of the U.N.'s Acceleration Agenda calling for an end to coal, net-zero electricity generation by 2035 for all developed countries and 2040 for the rest of the world, and no more licensing or funding of new oil and gas drilling, or expansion of existing oil and gas reserves.
Mr. Guterres said he expects all G-20 leaders to commit to bigger emissions targets by the next U.N. climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that begins Nov. 30.
Sustainability experts at Lombard Odier Investment Managers appreciated the report's "note of optimism." Technologies to avoid the worst effects of climate change, including solar and wind energy, electric vehicles, heat pumps, precision agriculture and alternative proteins "are now reaching tipping points," said Thomas Hohne-Sparborth, head of sustainability research, and Dominic Tighe, senior sustainability analyst at Lombard Odier IM, in an emailed statement.
The report is also a message for investors with science-backed climate strategies, said Edward Baker, head of climate policy at the Principles for Responsible Investment in a separate statement.
"Future market stability depends on choices taken now and in the near term, and investors sit at the heart of the required response," said Mr. Baker, who called for policies that remove barriers to public and private capital to climate solutions.
