ON MONDAY, RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Costa Rica supported the conclusions of the new global report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and urged the international community for a “decisive shift” more action to address the climate crisis.
“The IPCC report confirms that climate action is more urgent today than ever. Science tells us that global goals are still within reach, but we need to take decisive action now. The world needs to make a decisive shift away from fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas,” said Costa Rican Minister of Environment and Energy Andrea Meza.
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The IPPC report, which has been analyzing the effects of climate change for the UN since 1988, states that humans have played an “undeniable” role in the warming of the atmosphere, ocean, and soil, leading the world to a rise in temperatures unparalleled in the last 2,000 years.
According to IPCC experts, the current atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, exceeds 410 particles per million, the highest in two million years.
The report also predicts that sea levels will continue to rise irremediably, between 28 and 55 centimeters, by the end of the century with respect to current levels, even if net-zero emissions are achieved.
The Costa Rican minister affirmed that her country is “on the right path” towards eliminating the use of fossil fuels.
Meza highlighted a bill being studied by Congress, which seeks to prohibit the exploration and exploitation of oil and natural gas, activities already banned in the country but through a presidential decree that can be repealed in the future by any president.
Costa Rica has a long-term National Decarbonization Plan that has one of its goals to eliminate fossil fuels by 2050.
For his part, the director of the National Meteorological Institute, Werner Stolz, said that the report’s findings by the group of scientists are conclusive.
“The data have absolute clarity. The rate of warming is accelerating. Global surface temperatures have risen faster since 1970 than in any other 50-year period for at least the past 2,000 years. This is a situation that is unprecedented in the history of the human species,” Stolz said.