The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that the world will face more serious effects of climate change if there is no measure to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which leads to increased global warming.

The warning came during a two-day workshop in Siem Reap province to publicise the IPCC’s report on the annual temperature increase of 1.5 Celsius.

“The world’s population has 12 years to reduce the release of carbon in the atmosphere to the lowest level to avoid the worst effects of climate change."

“Currently the annual global temperature increase is 1.5 Celsius, leading to drought, flooding and storms almost everywhere in the world, and it will get even worse and more serious if the global temperature continues to increase by 0.5 Celsius annually in addition to the current level,” the IPCC’s technical team warned in its special report.

Meanwhile, the team has provided some effective guidelines including measures to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and develop techniques and scientific methods related to the use of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels in the industrial, handicraft and transport sector.

The team said the guidelines are important for analysts, specialists and policymakers in the government to formulate strategic plans and policies to address climate change and ensure the temperature will not increase by more than 1.5 Celsius.

Ministry of Environment secretary of state Mom Thany who also attended the workshop said Cambodia needs scientists and engineers as well as techniques to forecast and provide good initiatives for the government to effectively curb the negative effects of climate change.

She said effectively mitigating the impact of climate change could help Cambodia achieve sustainable development in all sectors as in other developed countries by 2050.

“Strong international cooperation will help strengthen our capacity to create scientific evidence on the effects of climate change. We need this evidence to choose the right path,” she said.

‘Wake-up call’

Seng Teak, the country director of World Wide Fund (WWF-Cambodia) who was also present at the workshop, said the special report is a wake-up call for member states of the IPCC, including Cambodia, to find ways and specific solutions to address climate change and to move towards cleaner energy.

Teak said the Cambodian government has maintained more than 41 per cent of the Kingdom’s total land for conservation purposes and for use as wildlife sanctuaries.

The preservation of the country’s biodiversity, he said, had helped Cambodia reduce the release of carbon dioxide compared to most countries in Southeast Asia, and is second only to Brunei which maintains 44 per cent of its total land for biodiversity conservation.

Teak said Cambodia also has much potential to explore renewable energy for the development of its industrial, handicraft and transport sectors.

“In light of the report on the IPCC’s findings, we believe that Cambodia will be able to execute plans to successfully prevent the temperature from increasing more than 1.5 Celsius through various unprecedented changes such as the reduction of gas emission in all sectors, the use of other alternatives like renewal energy, a change in attitude and an increase in investment in low-carbon emission,” he said.

During the 49th meeting of the IPCC in Japan in mid-May, more than 280 scientists and specialists gathered to discuss ways to improve scientific methods that have been modernised to support the storage of greenhouse gas.

The result of this meeting led to numerous changes to guidelines in four sectors including industrial energy and use of products of agriculture and forestry sector and use of land and waste.