Latest news with #UNIntergovernmentalPanelonClimateChange
New Straits Times
15 hours ago
- General
- New Straits Times
Suriname needs huge investment in battle to keep sea at bay
IN the dead of night on a beach in Suriname's capital Paramaribo, a group of just-hatched baby sea turtles clamber out of their sandy nesting hole and race, flippers flailing, towards the sea. For years, endangered leatherbacks and green turtles have emerged onto Braamspunt beach to lay their eggs. But the land spit at the tip of the Suriname river estuary is rapidly vanishing as erosion, caused by rising sea levels linked to climate change, gobbles up entire swathes of Paramaribo's coastline. "Maybe we'll get one more season out of this," Kiran Soekhoe Balrampersad, a guide who accompanied a group of tourists on a recent expedition to see the nesting turtles, told AFP. "But after that there'll no longer be a beach," he added dolefully. Suriname, South America's smallest country, is one of the most vulnerable in the world to rising sea levels. Nearly seven out of ten people in the former Dutch colony of 600,000 inhabitants live in low-lying coastal areas, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "Every day I see a piece of my land disappear," said Gandat Sheinderpesad, a 56-year-old farmer who has lost 95 per cent of his smallholding to the sea. Local authorities have for years been trying to find a way to hold back the tide. "Some areas are not problematic because we have 5, 10, even 20 kilometres (3, 6 or 12 miles) of mangrove" acting as a buffer between the waves and the shore, Minister of Public Works Riad Nurmohamed told AFP. But near Paramaribo, "there is just one kilometre so it's a very vulnerable zone," he added. In 2020, a programme to restore the capital's mangroves was launched. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres sought to add VIP power to the initiative in 2022 by wading into the mud to personally plant seedlings. But five years later, Sienwnath Naqal, the climate change and water management expert who led the project, surveys a scene of desolation. The sea is now lapping at the edge of a road and the wooden stakes to which he had attached hundreds of samplings are largely bare. High seas carried away the substrate sediment, leaving the roots exposed. "Over the last two to three years the water forcefully penetrated the mangroves, which were destroyed," Nurmohamed said. The dredging of sand at the entrance to Paramaribo estuary to facilitate the passage of boats headed upriver to the port also contributed to the erosion, said Naqal. But like the Amazon rainforest in neighbouring Brazil, the destruction was also deliberate in places, with farmers uprooting mangroves to make way for crops. With the water lapping at the feet of Paramaribo's 240,000 people, Suriname has changed tack and set about building a dyke. For Sheinderpesad, the levee represents his last chance of remaining on his land. "I have nowhere else to go. When we have the dyke, I will be safer, although I'm not sure for how long," he said. The 4.5 kilometre-long barrier will cost US$11 million, which the government has vowed to fund from state coffers. "If you go see donors it takes years before you can start to built. We have no time to waste, we'll be flooded," Nurmohamed explained. But plugging one hole in the country's maritime defences will not suffice to keep the mighty Atlantic at bay. The government wants to build up the entire network of dykes that dot the country's 380-kilometer coastline. It's just not sure where to find the money. "It's a colossal investment," Nurmohamed said. The country's newly discovered offshore oil deposits may provide the answer. Last year, French group TotalEnergies announced a US$10.5 billion project to exploit an oil field off Suriname's coast with an estimated capacity of producing 220,000 barrels per day.
eNCA
17 hours ago
- General
- eNCA
Suriname's battle to keep sea at bay
PARAMARIBO - In the dead of night on a beach in Suriname's capital Paramaribo, a group of just-hatched baby sea turtles clamber out of their sandy nesting hole and race, flippers flailing, towards the sea. For years, endangered leatherbacks and green turtles have emerged onto Braamspunt beach to lay their eggs. But the land spit at the tip of the Suriname river estuary is rapidly vanishing as erosion, caused by rising sea levels linked to climate change, gobbles up entire swathes of Paramaribo's coastline. "Maybe we'll get one more season out of this," Kiran Soekhoe Balrampersad, a guide who accompanied a group of tourists on a recent expedition to see the nesting turtles, told AFP. "But after that there'll no longer be a beach," he added dolefully. Suriname, South America's smallest country, is one of the most vulnerable in the world to rising sea levels. Nearly seven out of ten people in the former Dutch colony of 600,000 inhabitants live in low-lying coastal areas, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. AFP | Juan BARRETO "Every day I see a piece of my land disappear," said Gandat Sheinderpesad, a 56-year-old farmer who has lost 95 percent of his smallholding to the sea. Local authorities have for years been trying to find a way to hold back the tide. "Some areas are not problematic because we have 5, 10, even 20 kilometres of mangrove" acting as a buffer between the waves and the shore, Minister of Public Works Riad Nurmohamed told AFP. But near Paramaribo, "there is just one kilometre so it's a very vulnerable zone," he added. In 2020, a program to restore the capital's mangroves was launched. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres sought to add VIP power to the initiative in 2022 by wading into the mud to personally plant seedlings. But five years later, Sienwnath Naqal, the climate change and water management expert who led the project, surveys a scene of desolation. The sea is now lapping at the edge of a road and the wooden stakes to which he had attached hundreds of samplings are largely bare. AFP | Juan BARRETO High seas carried away the substrate sediment, leaving the roots exposed. "Over the last two to three years the water forcefully penetrated the mangroves, which were destroyed," Nurmohamed said. The dredging of sand at the entrance to Paramaribo estuary to facilitate the passage of boats headed upriver to the port also contributed to the erosion, said Naqal. But like the Amazon rainforest in neighbouring Brazil, the destruction was also deliberate in places, with farmers uprooting mangroves to make way for crops. - 'No time to waste' - With the water lapping at the feet of Paramaribo's 240,000 people, Suriname has changed tack and set about building a dyke. For Sheinderpesad, the levee represents his last chance of remaining on his land. "I have nowhere else to go. When we have the dyke, I will be safer, although I'm not sure for how long," he said. The 4.5 kilometre-long barrier will cost $11-million, which the government has vowed to fund from state coffers. AFP | Juan BARRETO "If you go see donors it takes years before you can start to built. We have no time to waste, we'll be flooded," Nurmohamed explained. But plugging one hole in the country's maritime defenses will not suffice to keep the mighty Atlantic at bay. The government wants to build up the entire network of dykes that dot the country's 380-kilometer coastline. It's just not sure where to find the money. "It's a colossal investment," Nurmohamed said. The country's newly discovered offshore oil deposits may provide the answer. Last year, French group TotalEnergies announced a $10.5 billion project to exploit an oil field off Suriname's coast with an estimated capacity of producing 220,000 barrels per day. by Anne-sophie Thill
France 24
20 hours ago
- General
- France 24
'Every day I see land disappear': Suriname's battle to keep sea at bay
For years, endangered leatherbacks and green turtles have emerged onto Braamspunt beach to lay their eggs. But the land spit at the tip of the Suriname river estuary is rapidly vanishing as erosion, caused by rising sea levels linked to climate change, gobbles up entire swathes of Paramaribo's coastline. "Maybe we'll get one more season out of this," Kiran Soekhoe Balrampersad, a guide who accompanied a group of tourists on a recent expedition to see the nesting turtles, told AFP. "But after that there'll no longer be a beach," he added dolefully. Suriname, South America's smallest country, is one of the most vulnerable in the world to rising sea levels. Nearly seven out of ten people in the former Dutch colony of 600,000 inhabitants live in low-lying coastal areas, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "Every day I see a piece of my land disappear," said Gandat Sheinderpesad, a 56-year-old farmer who has lost 95 percent of his smallholding to the sea. Local authorities have for years been trying to find a way to hold back the tide. "Some areas are not problematic because we have 5, 10, even 20 kilometers (3, 6 or 12 miles) of mangrove" acting as a buffer between the waves and the shore, Minister of Public Works Riad Nurmohamed told AFP. But near Paramaribo, "there is just one kilometer so it's a very vulnerable zone," he added. In 2020, a program to restore the capital's mangroves was launched. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres sought to add VIP power to the initiative in 2022 by wading into the mud to personally plant seedlings. But five years later, Sienwnath Naqal, the climate change and water management expert who led the project, surveys a scene of desolation. The sea is now lapping at the edge of a road and the wooden stakes to which he had attached hundreds of samplings are largely bare. High seas carried away the substrate sediment, leaving the roots exposed. "Over the last two to three years the water forcefully penetrated the mangroves, which were destroyed," Nurmohamed said. The dredging of sand at the entrance to Paramaribo estuary to facilitate the passage of boats headed upriver to the port also contributed to the erosion, said Naqal. But like the Amazon rainforest in neighboring Brazil, the destruction was also deliberate in places, with farmers uprooting mangroves to make way for crops. 'No time to waste' With the water lapping at the feet of Paramaribo's 240,000 people, Suriname has changed tack and set about building a dyke. For Sheinderpesad, the levee represents his last chance of remaining on his land. "I have nowhere else to go. When we have the dyke, I will be safer, although I'm not sure for how long," he said. The 4.5 kilometer-long barrier will cost $11 million, which the government has vowed to fund from state coffers. "If you go see donors it takes years before you can start to built. We have no time to waste, we'll be flooded," Nurmohamed explained. But plugging one hole in the country's maritime defenses will not suffice to keep the mighty Atlantic at bay. The government wants to build up the entire network of dykes that dot the country's 380-kilometer coastline. It's just not sure where to find the money. "It's a colossal investment," Nurmohamed said. The country's newly discovered offshore oil deposits may provide the answer. Last year, French group TotalEnergies announced a $10.5 billion project to exploit an oil field off Suriname's coast with an estimated capacity of producing 220,000 barrels per day.
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Business Standard
20-06-2025
- Science
- Business Standard
Earth to exhaust carbon budget for 1.5-deg C limit in 3 years: Scientists
If the world continues to release carbon dioxide at the current rate, the carbon budget for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will be exhausted in just over three years, according to an international group of scientists. The carbon budget refers to the total amount of carbon dioxide the planet can emit while still having a good chance of staying below a certain temperature threshold. In this case, the limit is 1.5 degrees Celsius, which countries agreed to at the Paris climate conference in 2015. Exceeding the carbon budget does not mean the 1.5-degree limit will be crossed immediately. It means the world is on course to surpass it very soon unless emissions are drastically cut. The latest "Indicators of Global Climate Change" study, published in the journal Earth System Science Data, also found that the carbon budget for 2 degrees Celsius could be exceeded by 2048 if current levels of CO2 emissions continue. Scientists said human activities have led to the release of around 53 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2e) into the atmosphere every year over the past decade. This is mainly due to increasing emissions from burning fossil fuels and deforestation. In the last 10 years (2015 to 2024), the Earth's temperature was 1.24 degrees Celsius higher than it was before the industrial era began. Scientists say 1.22 degrees Celsius of this warming was caused by human activities. The year 2024 was the hottest on record and marked the first calendar year with a global average temperature more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the 18501900 baseline, the period before human activities such as fossil fuel use began significantly affecting the climate. A permanent breach of the 1.5-degree Celsius target in the Paris Agreement refers to sustained warming over a 20 to 30-year period. In 2022, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent by 2030, compared to 2019 levels, to keep the temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution. Last month, the World Meteorological Organization said there is a 70 per cent chance that the average global temperature between 2025 and 2029 will exceed pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, IPCC Chair Jim Skea told PTI in an interview in March that the 43 per cent reduction target is now outdate due to a lack of action, meaning the actual reduction needed is even higher.
Boston Globe
29-05-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Earth could cross a key climate threshold in two years. Here's why it matters.
The accelerated timeline is due to higher-than-expected temperatures over the past few years, diminishing air pollution that cooled the Earth, and greenhouse gas emissions that continue to rise globally, despite the growth of renewable energy. And it means that irreversible tipping points in the climate system — such as the melting of Arctic ice sheets or the wide-scale collapse of coral reefs — are closer at hand than scientists previously believed. Advertisement The WMO report predicted five more years of sky-high temperatures — which, combined with hotter conditions driven by the El Niño weather pattern, mean that the planet is poised to officially warm 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over a sustained period by 2027. 'There is no way, barring geoengineering, to prevent global temperatures from going over 1.5 degrees,' said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and the climate research lead at the payments company Stripe. Geoengineering refers to deliberately cooling the planet, for example by injecting aerosols into the atmosphere — an idea that is hotly debated. Nearly a decade ago, delegates from more than 190 nations agreed in Paris to pursue 'efforts to limit the temperature increase' to 1.5 degrees Celsius, after small-island nations protested that higher temperatures would sink their land beneath rising waves. Advertisement While there is no official definition, most scientists and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change understand the goal to be a long-term average temperature, over 20 or 30 years. (In a single year, temperatures could spike because of El Niño or other temporary factors.) That's why, when the world passed the first 12-month period of temperatures over 1.5 degrees Celsius in February 2024, scientists warned that this didn't mean the end of the target. But now, with the WMO's new predictions, even that small hope has slipped away. According to the new analysis, it is likely that the next five years clock in, on average, at over 1.5 degrees Celsius. Combined with the past couple of hot years — and increasing temperatures expected after 2030 — that means 2027 is likely to be the first year where that long-term average temperature is over the limit, Hausfather said. Since the 2015 Paris agreement, 1.5 degrees Celsius has been a kind of lodestar for the climate movement. Protesters have chanted 'Keep 1.5 alive' outside global climate meetings. Scientists have outlined how that level of warming will drive infectious diseases, destroy crops, and fuel weather disasters. Still, the goal was always a stretch. In the accord, nations agreed to hold temperatures 'well below' 2 degrees Celsius and pursue efforts to hold them to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But even at the time, some scientists and experts privately worried that — given the difficulty of transforming the energy system — the more ambitious target would prove impossible. 'There's tremendous inertia in the industrial system,' said David Victor, a professor of public policy at the University of California San Diego, who has questioned the feasibility of the goal since before the Paris agreement. 'It doesn't change quickly.' Advertisement A pumpjack dips its head to extract oil in a basin north of Helper, Utah. Rick Bowmer/Associated Press Although renewables have grown dramatically over the past decade, they still make up just about a third of the global energy mix. Even as wind, solar, and batteries grow on the grid, the world is also consuming more electricity than ever before. Missing the target will mark the end of a hopeful phase in the world's battle against climate change — and the beginning of a period of uncertainty about what comes next. At the same time, humanity will face mounting weather extremes, including deadly heat waves that compound in strength for each tenth of a degree of warming. It also places policymakers and negotiators who have tried to rally support for slashing planet-warming emissions in an uncomfortable situation. UN Secretary General António Guterres, for example, has claimed that the 1.5-degree goal is 'on life support' and 'will soon be dead.' At some point soon, nations will have to acknowledge that failure — and devise a new goal. 'You could imagine governments saying, 'Hey, 1.5 is not going to be feasible, but here's what we're going to do, and here's where we're going to tighten the efforts,'' said Victor. 'That's one approach. And another approach would just be to say give up.' Some countries and scientists have also put their faith behind a concept called 'overshoot' — where the world could pass 1.5 degrees Celsius, then later on remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to bring temperatures back down. But many researchers warn that if countries cannot even spend the money to build out renewables and batteries, removing CO2 from the sky could be a pipe dream. Advertisement 'I'm personally very skeptical about our willingness to spend tens of trillions of dollars on dealing with overshoot,' Hausfather said. Nations could redirect their attention to the Paris agreement's less ambitious goal — holding temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius of warming. That goal is more feasible, but at the moment still unlikely. The planet is currently on pace for something closer to 2.5 degrees Celsius. 'It's just the longer we wait, the harder it's going to be,' Hausfather said. 'After another decade of doing nothing, we're going to talk about the 2-degree target much like we talk about the 1.5-degree target.'
