The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just presented its 36-page summary of all the knowledge accumulated on climate change over the past 9 years.
Many believe this report must be an inaccessible piece of scientific jargon.
It is not! It certainly requires some attention, but you won’t waste your time if you take 2 hours to read these 36 pages (available through the link at the bottom of the newsletter).
Here are our 5 main takeaways for those of you who haven't had time to read the full synthesis report yet.
- In 2020, the average global surface temperature was +1.1°C higher than during the pre-industrial age (1850-1900)
- The warming is faster on earth (+1.6°C) than in the oceans (+0.9°C).
- Global warming has accelerated in recent years, since 42% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities since 1850 have been emitted during the last three decades.
- We still haven’t reached the peak in GHG emissions: global net emissions were 10% higher in 2019 than in 2010.
- In all regions, increases in extreme events have resulted in human mortality and morbidity, and mass mortality events for the flora and fauna.
- These adverse impacts from climate change are also economic and on human health, especially in the climate-exposed zones.
- The causes and consequences are not evenly distributed though: the richest 10% emit c. 40% of total GHG, while the poorest 50% emit less than 15%.
- 3.5 billion people are highly vulnerable to climate change due to, for example, rising sea levels, drought or food insecurity.
- To date, our collective actions are not sufficient to meet the target set in the Paris Agreement, which is to contain global warming as close as possible to 1.5°C by 2100 and by no means above 2°C.
- At the current pace, the +1.5°C mark will be reached between 2030 and 2035 (with a 50% certainty), and we will reach c. +3.2°C by 2100 – or +2.8°C if all NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) made public before COP26 are applied.
- Yet, avoiding every tenth of degree above 1.5°C is worth fighting for, since every increment of global warming intensifies in a non-linear way the hazards of irreversible negative impacts.
- There is hope. The IPCC synthesis report lists all the actions that can be taken and warns that we must act quickly and strongly in the next few years if we want to still stand a chance of reaching the Paris Agreement objective.
- Starting to reduce GHG emissions and rapidly halving them globally – which is clearly achievable, although ambitious and requiring strong resolve – is crucial to secure staying below 2°C of warming by the end of the century.
- Acting quickly and forcefully can also bring co-benefits in the short term, such as improving air quality, reducing climate-linked health issues and reducing food insecurity.
- As investors, we have a key role to play in this fight against global warming. The IPCC shows that there is currently enough global financing to rapidly reduce emissions, but capital flows must be redirected as we need 3 to 6 times more climate-related investments.
- Given the inertia of the system, curbing emissions rapidly during this decade is absolutely crucial.
- As the IPCC puts it: “Our choices in the coming years will reverberate over thousands of years”.
- Argos Climate Action is our contribution: helping European SMEs, which are lagging in their transition, in deeply and rapidly decarbonising their activity, to shape them into sustainable leaders.
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Argos Wityu
Coralie Cornet
Head of Communications
ccc@argos.fund
+33 6 14 38 33 37
About Argos Wityu / www.argos.wityu.fund
One firm, two strategies.
Argos Wityu is an independent European investment fund that supports the transformation and growth of mid-sized businesses in close collaboration with management teams. Argos Wityu seeks to acquire majority interests and invests between €10m and €100m in each transaction. With more than €1.4bn under management, over 30 years of experience and more than 90 businesses assisted, Argos Wityu operates from offices in Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Luxembourg, Milan and Paris, along two strategies:
- The Midmarket fund focuses on supporting companies undertaking ownership and/or strategic transitions.
- The Climate Action fund aims at shaping European sustainable leaders.
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