Lead Bishop for the Environment, Bishop John Arnold of Salford, has responded to a new report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – a United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.
The AR6 is the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC, the first was published in 1990, and follows a study of more than 14,000 scientific papers on global warming and its imapct on our common home. The report launched on 9 August 2021 is Working Group I’s contribution to AR6.
One of the starkest conclusions is that the Earth has warmed 1.09℃ since pre-industrial times and many changes such as sea-level rise and glacier melt are now virtually irreversible. 1.07℃ of the 1.09℃ warming is due to greenhouse gases associated with human activities.
Bishop Arnold, in responding to the report, stressed that the time has come to act for the common good, not with self-interest or self-serving politics:
“The grim and disturbing findings of the AR6 report only reinforce the message of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si – we must do everything we can, and now, to protect and defend Our Common Home.
“World leaders must come together with urgency for the common good and commit to making real progress, on a global level, not just pay lip service to the facts and figures of which we are all too aware.
“This is a time to be acting for the common good, not self-interest or self-serving politics.”
The IPCC last looked at the science of global warming in 2013.
