The following statement has been issued by Dr. Daniel Zarin, WCS Executive Director of Forests and Climate Change, about the newest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which synthesizes the latest science on climate mitigation, including emissions trends, mitigation pathways, innovation and technology, and policy measures.

Daniel Zarin, WCS Executive Director of Forests and Climate Change, said:

“Despite some important progress, at the current trajectory of global warming – more than 2 degrees Celsius – we can expect devastating impacts to nature and people globally.

“Pledges are not sufficient to avoid these impacts. Concerted effort and action are needed to make effective climate change mitigation and adaptation a reality. The UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow garnered momentum around the protection of forests – our world’s valuable carbon sinks – and saw increased ambition from national governments. But our future will be determined by how quickly and deeply we actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the global economy and protect nature’s carbon storage and sinks – primarily forests and peatlands. We can invest in our future now, or incur exponentially greater costs down the road.

“The science has been clear enough for over three decades. It is crystal clear today. The scale of action needed now is so great because we have delayed for so long. But we can and must act now to prevent the worst impacts of climate change on people and our planet.”  

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To learn more about WCS’s climate work, visit: https://www.wcs.org/our-work/solutions/climate-change