Dr. Debra Roberts – Adapt or die: The new IPCC report and our options for adapting to climate change

03/12/22 • 38 min

In the 3rd episode of Planet A’s fourth season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Dr. Debra Roberts co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC).

The IPCC recently released its report ”Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” that assesses the impact climate change could have on ecosystems, biodiversity and human communities.

Dr. Roberts calls the report a clear wake-up call that will force us to either ”adapt or die”.

For some animals, the latter option may become their fate. The report finds that - even if we meet the goal enshrined in the Paris Accord - there will be a severe loss of biodiversity.

Thus, an increase in global temperatures of 1.5° will ”very likely” result in the extinction of somewhere between 3 and 14 percent of the several thousand land dwelling species that the IPCC looked at.

Furthermore, a 5° increase in global temperatures could eradicate up to 48 % of the land based species.

Some developments - such as hydrological changes resulting from the retreat of glaciers – have already become irreversible, leading to more droughts and rising sea levels.

However, the report also outlines feasible and effective adaptation options, which can reduce risks to people and nature.

Dr. Roberts argues that to enable climate resilient development, it will require systemic change in everything from the way we produce energy to how we build cities and manage ecosystems.

In the 3rd episode of Planet A’s fourth season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Dr. Debra Roberts co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC).

Dr. Roberts calls the report a clear wake-up call that will force us to either ”adapt or die”.

For some animals, the latter option may become their fate. The report finds that - even if we meet the goal enshrined in the Paris Accord - there will be a severe loss of biodiversity.

Furthermore, a 5° increase in global temperatures could eradicate up to 48 % of the land based species.

Some developments - such as hydrological changes resulting from the retreat of glaciers – have already become irreversible, leading to more droughts and rising sea levels.

However, the report also outlines feasible and effective adaptation options, which can reduce risks to people and nature.

Dr. Roberts argues that to enable climate resilient development, it will require systemic change in everything from the way we produce energy to how we build cities and manage ecosystems.

Previous Episode

Lutz Weischer – How to become a global climate champion?

In the 2nd episode of Planet A’s fourth season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Lutz Weischer, Head of Policy for the NGO Germanwatch.

Germanwatch works on a wide range of environmental issues, but is perhaps best known for its annual publication of “CCPI” - the Climate Change Performance Index.

As evident in numerous international assessments, the world is currently not on track to limit the rise of global temperatures to 1.5 degrees celsius and climate action is urgently needed.

Thus, the CCPI aims to enhance transparency in international climate politics and enables comparison of climate protection efforts and progress made by individual countries.

In this episode, Mr. Weischer explains how the CCPI compares the climate policies and actions of different countries. The CCPI is unusual in the way that the top-ranked country is in fourth place. Germanwatch argues that no country performs well enough to be ranked and achieve an overall very high rating. Accordingly, the first three positions in the overall ranking therefore remain empty as even though all countries were as committed as the current frontrunners, it would still not be enough to prevent dangerous climate change.

The index is produced in collaboration with the think tank NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Network (CAN) - a global network of more than 1,300 civil society organizations in over 130 countries.

Next Episode

Jonathan Safran Foer – How Breakfast Can Stem Climate Change

In the 4th episode of Planet A’s fourth season, Dan Jørgensen talks with the renowned American author, Jonathan Safran Foer.

His debut “Everything Is Illuminated ” and his later novels “Extremely Loud & IncrediblyClose ” and “Here I Am ” has established him as one of the most thought provoking American authors in this century.

Over the last decade his non-fiction books “Eating Animals ” and “We Are the Weather – Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast ” plunged him into the debate on climate change – and on this episode of Planet A .

And it all begins with what we eat for breakfast. Safran Foer proposes that we cut as many animal products as possible from our diet – until dinner. That way we can find comfort in the food we are used to eat, while still taking action on one of the biggest emission sources

Safran Foer suggests that we have overlooked what we can do about climate change ourselves. Thus, while we cannot change human nature, we can make choices about what we eat.