translated from Spanish: 1.5°C: life threshold – The Counter

“There is no doubt, humanity is almost completely responsible for global warming,” says a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which rings alarm bells. But, in addition, all the wills must be put in place for the measures to be taken today, so that, in the next two decades, the planet does not exceed the 1.5 °C increase in its average temperature, a limit so that the planet remains liveable and the species do not become massively extinct. 1.5° C is the limit of global temperature increase that the 197 countries that signed the 2015 Paris Agreement set as a target.
There is an urgent need to raise awareness and sensitize society as a whole to the effects of climate change and the very serious environmental and human impacts it is causing. The tragedy of the recent wildfires, in Europe and the U.S. The floods in Asia, or the drought in the Middle East and parts of South America, alert us to the magnitude of the threats and make even more critical the need to join efforts to prevent further disasters.
“The risk of an entire country ending up submerged under water is so extreme that living conditions in that nation can become incompatible with the right to life and dignity, even before it happens,” the experts said, as is the case with the major fires and natural disasters that are forcing people to migrate. to different parts of the world.
As we know, reducing emissions becomes more urgent than ever, since we are living at a turning point with regard to global warming that will make our planet a place incompatible with human life. Excess CO2 is the main cause of global warming due to the greenhouse effect, aggravating the lack of water, as droughts increase, a reality that in Chile becomes critical.
In this regard, the private sector plays a key role, when it acts in coordination with the State and the citizenry. We must accelerate investments in the development of renewable energy sources, conversion to cleaner fuels, improvements in the efficiency of combustion processes and changes in consumption trends through environmental education.
We need coherence between the climate ambition of countries, with what science tells us, and what the people of the planet demand, and also recognize the climate action of other non-governmental actors. Reducing the Carbon Footprint is a challenge that concerns everyone: companies, institutions and citizens. Everyone, to the extent of their possibilities and responsibilities, can and should contribute to the protection of the planet, in order to take care of humanity.
1.5°C is the threshold that science has proposed to us, a number that is at stake, but it is also the limit set between life and death for all of us who live in the world. It is in our hands to become aware of the seriousness and threat posed by global warming and to reach ambitious global agreements, just months before cop26.

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Original source in Spanish