A United Nations science panel issued a warning about climate change on Sunday, saying that governments are not putting enough effort in changing the way they use technology and sources of energy.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the best options for averting catastrophic effects in the future may lead to less economic growth in the near future, according to Politico.
The panel said the world is in a situation where greenhouse emissions are increasing more than ever. The committee found that the emissions can only be brought under control with an intensive push over the next 15 years, The New York Times reported.
"We cannot afford to lose another decade," said Ottmar Edenhofer, economist from Germany and co-chairman of the committee that wrote the report. "If we lose another decade, it becomes extremely costly to achieve climate stabilization."
The committee found that necessary action is becoming more affordable, with efficiency standards for cars and trucks and tougher building codes being able to save energy and reduce emissions without having a negative effect on people's quality of life. The report also said the cost of renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, is declining and leading to use on a large scale.
The rising global average temperatures must be limited to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, Politico reported. Scientists say the target temperature could diminish climate change's most harmful effects. The report added that the temperature will rise by as much as 4.8 degrees by 2100 if the necessary industrial and technological changes are not made.
The IPCC's options for reducing climate change include boosting energy efficiency, slashing emissions from electricity generation, eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels and investing more in wind, nuclear and solar power.
The report said that in order to limit the rise in global temperature to 2 degrees, nations have to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 70 percent compared with 2010 levels by the middle of this century, and to almost zero percent by 2100, Politico reported.
The study says that by the end of the century, societies may be much richer than today, but about 5 percent poorer than they would have been if they did not spend the money to protect the climate, The New York Times reported.
"Climate policy is not a free lunch," Edenhofer said Sunday at a news conference in Berlin.
