14 Enabling the Digital and Energy transition Even if the world reaches its goal of cutting carbon emission to net zero in 2050 – which it is not on track to achieve -- the future impacts of climate change will be disruptive, said Carlo Carraro, the Vice Chair of Working Group III at the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), at Prysmian Group’s Sustainability Day on November 23. Carraro said that temperatures will reach 1.5C above 18501900 levels by 2040 in any future mitigation scenarios, causing an “unprecedented” frequency of extreme weather events “even at warming of 1.5C.” The world is currently on track to reach +2.7C and the best that can be obtained by fully implementing the Glasgow commitments is a temperature increase between 1.8C and 2.0C, according to the International Energy Agency. Additional efforts would be needed to stabilize temperature increase at 1.5C. “We have already changed the climate, and some of the impacts will be unavoidable -- which implies that it is urgent to keep these impacts from being worse than what they will already be,” said Carraro, who is also Professor of Environmental Economics at Venice University. “We need to intervene on both sides: we need to reduce emissions, to avoid an even worse situation; and adapt to climate change, because unavoidable impacts may highly damage many regions of the world, the poorest in particular.” The impacts of climate change such as rising sea levels, changes in rainfall patterns, and higher temperatures are already partly unavoidable, even if the world succeeds in reaching the carbon emissions targets set at Glasgow that would limit warming to an increase of 1.8-2.0 degrees centigrade by the end of the century with respect to pre-industrial levels, said Carraro in a presentation called “The Impacts of Climate Change: A Look into the Future.” Carlo Carraro Vice Chair of Working Group III at the UN's International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
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