The report highlights the need for all governments to act before global warming reaches a point of no return. The report’s author Kevin Watkins, said “We are issuing a call to action, not providing a counsel of despair. Working together with resolve, we can win the battle against climate change. Allowing the window of opportunity to close would represent a moral and political failure without precedent in human history.” The report calls on the developed countries to initiate tougher policies to drive down their carbon footprint and lead by example to the developing nations. It claims much of the responsibility for the current climate situation has been from richer countries and to avoid serious global consequences they must cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 and by 30 percent by 2020. The report recommends that developing countries should cut emissions by 20 percent by 2050.

If these measures are put in place the authors behind the report believe many potential disastrous scenarios could be avoided. The main threats identified by the report were threefold

• the breakdown of agricultural systems as a result of drought, rising temperatures and flash flooding
• Reduction of water supplies due to glacial retreat and changing rainfall patterns
• Flooding and tropical storms

The impact of these events could potentially affect over 3.2 billion people all over the world and further broaden the gap between poor and rich countries. Health risks were also cited as a consequence with malaria and malnutrition at the top of the table. One of the authors Mr Dervis said “Of course there are uncertainties, but faced with risks of this order of magnitude, uncertainty is not a case for inaction. Fighting climate change is about our commitment to human development today and about creating a world that will provide ecological security for our children and their grandchildren.”

The Renewable Energy Centre stated that the report is the first of its kind to so boldly directly link the effects of climate change to the survival of the human race and outline the course of action needed in the immediate future to prevent it. The Renewable Energy Centre fully supported the findings and said the report reinforced the need to push the renewable energy sector forward as a fully fledged industry not simply an emerging one.

The report also called for governments to agree to 2°C threshold in global temperature and highlighted that at current trends by 2032 the world is likely to exceed 4°C. The impact of this rise could affect many people across the world and the report called for countries to commit to and implement measures to prevent this immediately. In the light of the report, and other in depth research completed throughout the year, 200 scientists signed a declaration at the Climate Change Conference in Bali last week urging governments and politicians to put in place firm agreements for the reduction of carbon emissions.

The Renewable Energy Centre stated it would continue to aggressively promote renewable technologies and suppliers through its website in order to help drive the sector forward and encourage consumers and businesses to reduce their carbon footprint.