World’s Climate Scientists Lay Out a Path to Mitigate Climate Change

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: April 4, 2022
NOTE: Press advisory
CONTACT and QUOTES: WV Climate Alliance founder Perry Bryant: perrybryantwv@outlook.com and 304-344-1673 | Morgan King, Climate Campaign coordinator, WV Rivers Coalition: mking@wvrivers.org and 304-590-0014
FOR MORE INFO: Douglas John Imbrogno at douglaseye@gmail.com or 304-638-9784

World’s Climate Scientists Lay Out a Path to Mitigate the Deadly Impact of Climate Change in Important New Report
The new report released today by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “is a clarion call for Congressional action” to address the climate crisis, according to Perry Bryant, one of the founders of the West Virginia Climate Alliance.

The report states that limiting global warming to avoid the worst impacts of climate change requires rapid and immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, said Angie Rosser, Executive Director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, a founding member of the climate alliance.

“This IPCC report from the world’s climate scientists should provide the motivation for Senator Joe Manchin, other Congressional leaders, and the Biden Administration to prioritize reaching an agreement on comprehensive solutions to climate change,” Rosser said.

The IPCC report, compiled by 278 experts from 65 countries and reviewed by more than 20,000 scientists from around the globe, found that emissions in the decade between 2010 and 2019 “were higher than at any previous decade.”

The report offers a road map for how countries can limit global warming, but warns that the margin for error is exceedingly small. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change the world needs to keep global warming below an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius. That is the threshold beyond which scientists say the dangers of global warming — including worsening floods, droughts, wildfires and ecosystem collapse — grow considerably.

“Every year that you let pass without going for these urgent emissions reductions makes it more and more difficult,” said Jim Skea, an energy researcher who helped lead the report. “Unless we really do it immediately, it will not be possible to limit warming to 1.5 degrees.”

The new report examines dozens of strategies proposed by scientists and energy experts to help nations make the transition, according to a New York Times article on its details:

“Countries would need to clean up virtually all of the power plants worldwide that generate electricity for homes and factories. That means relying more on energy sources such as wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal or hydropower. Most of the world’s coal and natural gas plants would either need to shut down or install carbon capture technology that can trap emissions and bury them underground. Such technology has been slow to take off because of its high costs.”

The report projects that the value of unburned fossil fuels and “stranded” assets -- power plants and other uneconomical infrastructure – are projected to be $1 to $4 trillion. Coal assets are projected to be at risk at the end of this decade and gas assets at risk by the middle of the century.

The report’s call to action comes out days after an announcement that SEVA WV plans to partner with the state of West Virginia and the Boone and Lincoln County development authorities to create what would be the state’s largest solar farm on 3,000 acres of a former coal mining site straddling the two counties.

“It’s clear that now is the time for state and federal officials to expand such efforts and look to West Virginia’s future as the world seriously tackles the realities of climate change as laid out in the new report," said Rosser. “We need investments in our communities and our workers so that they are not left behind in a transition to a low-carbon economy.”
________________
FOUNDED in 2020, the WEST VIRGINIA CLIMATE ALLIANCE is a broad-based coalition of almost 20 environmental organizations, faith-based, civil rights and civic organizations, and other groups with a focus on climate change. Members of the Alliance work together to provide science-based education on climate change to West Virginia citizens and policymakers.
FOR MORE ON THE CLIMATE ALLIANCE, VISIT: WVClimateAlliance.org