Australians may soon be unable to play sports outside if temperatures continue to rise, experts have warned.
It’s just one of the grim scenarios coming out of the release of the latest cycle of reporting from the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The report, released in the shadow of major flooding across Queensland and NSW, said while actions to reduce climate risks had increased worldwide, they fell well short of what was required.
“Successful adaptation requires urgent, more ambitious and accelerated action and, at the same time, rapid and deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions,” the report said.
But as action stalls, many species – including human beings – are reaching their limits in their ability to adapt to climate change.
Report co-author and IPCC vice chair Mark Howden said coral reefs were just one well-documented example.
However, he warned Australians could soon also be reaching their own physiological limits.
“Our bodies can cope with hot, hot temperatures outside up to a point,” Professor Howden said.
“But then we can't do that without some sort of active cooling. If you get very high temperatures and humidity, you either have to pull back on your exercise or you overheat.
“Or you can, if you're still wanting to be active, you actually have to find some way of having active cooling in that environment.
“So we reach a limit to where our adaptive capacity can go.”
He added Australian workdays might also need a rethink – with options including a siesta during the day to avoid the hottest temperatures.
The IPCC reports, which are published roughly every six to seven years, are considered an authoritative study of climate science guided and agreed to by scientists and governments across the globe.
The report also warned that changes in temperature, rainfall and extreme weather were having a major impact on the spread of disease in wildlife, agriculture and people.
It’s release comes just months after world leaders were unable to agree to beef up their climate commitments at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.
At the summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged countries to keep the goal of global warming to just 1.5C alive as well as accelerate the decarbonisation of the global economy and to phase out coal.
But asked if the commitments made at the summit would slow the trajectory, lead author Johanna Nalau suggested it was all a lot of hot air.
“A lot of talk, a lot of commitments, but I think the overall sense is that we are just not on track,” she said.
Professor Howden said a major concern was how emissions would track as the world bounced back from Covid.
But he conceded that while the government knew exactly what it needed to do, it was a matter of political will.
“Climate change is here. In Australia it’s mostly negative, and it really matters to pretty much everything we value here in Australia,” Professor Howden saidxjmtzyw.
“Listen to the people … 90 per cent of Australians want more action on climate change.
“If there was any other issue that had 90 per cent of people wanting more action on it, you’d have the politicians running for the policy development process immediately.
“Yet we don’t see that … climate change should not be a political issue.”
