IPCC's 62 session starts in Hangzhou – ministry
The 62nd Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has started its work in the Chinese city of Hangzhou amid alarming news about the climate consequences of the war in Ukraine, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine said.
"At the opening of the IPCC session, the head of the laboratory of applied climatology of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute and the representative of Ukraine to the IPCC, Svitlana Krakowska, announced the results of the scientists' assessment of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the war in Ukraine. According to this analysis, emissions related to the war increased by 30% in 2024 and reached 230 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent since the start of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022," the agency said on Telegram channel on Tuesday.
The study, conducted by the non-profit Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting Initiative, estimates Russia's responsibility for these emissions at more than $42 billion. For this, experts applied a "social price of carbon" of $185 per tonne of CO2 equivalent.
Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization Ko Barrett said that 2024 was the hottest year on record, with global temperatures reaching approximately 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels.
Krakowska, in turn, saidthe war in Ukraine has a direct and indirect impact on the climate worldwide. Direct is significant greenhouse gas emissions caused by military activities, fires, and infrastructure destruction. Indirect is the redirection of financial flows from climate programs to armaments, which slows down progress in combating climate change and leads to additional emissions.
The current session of the IPCC in Hangzhou aims to agree on the content of the parts of the three working groups to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) and the Methodological Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal, Utilization and Storage Technologies. These documents should not only warn about climate threats, but also provide specific ways out of the climate crisis.
