Experts say the world must make an energy transition Energy and science

The world will have to switch to a low-carbon economy to avoid climate catastrophes caused by global warming, say experts interviewed. Brazil Agency. The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed yesterday (9) that last year was the hottest on the planet and perhaps the hottest in the world in the past 100,000 years.

On average, in 2023, the planet will be 1.48°C warmer than in the pre-industrial period (1850-1900), when humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale, emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

In the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries agreed to try to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid more serious consequences.

According to the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet), 2023 in Brazil is the hottest in the historical series, with this year's average temperature reaching 24.92°C, 0.69°C above the 1991/2020 historical average, which is 24.23. Celsius. Celsius.

Claudio Angelo, coordinator of communications and climate policy at the Climate Observatory, believes that the world needs an immediate action plan to achieve the energy transition as rich countries abandon fossil fuels and then developing countries.

“From a mitigation point of view, the whole world, especially the major oil producers, including Brazil, needs to follow what was identified in Dubai.” [COP-28] To transition away from fossil fuels. “The decline in global emissions must be radical, more radical than anything we have seen in human history,” Angelo said.

According to the ecologist, after the El Niño phenomenon disappears (a higher than average warming of the waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean), the temperature should drop slightly.

“But this 1.5°C temperature will come back to haunt us, and when it gets there again, it will be practically forever. At the end of this decade, if nothing is done to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially from burning fossil fuels and removing… Forests, we will permanently exceed this limit, and here lies the danger.

Claudio Angelo confirms that exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius will mean many deaths and material damage, and remembers that Brazil is a particularly vulnerable region. “We've had nine heat waves, people have died from the 60-degree heat sensation in Rio de Janeiro, and we already have all the problems of landslides and flooding that happen especially in the summer, in big cities where a lot of people live in risk areas. And the trend This will ultimately put more pressure on public health, security, housing and civil defense systems. There is an increasing urgency for Brazil to develop an adaptation plan to alert the population at an increasingly early stage about extreme weather events. Brazil needs to move people out of areas “Danger.”

The chief specialist at the Talanoa Institute, Branca Americano, believes that countries and companies must nip the problem in the bud because most of what causes global warming is the burning of fossil fuels.

“The world needs to achieve an energy transition. Here in Brazil, at least our electricity comes from renewable sources, but there are countries that need to radically change the way they produce and consume it. In Brazil, the main source of greenhouse gases comes from deforestation,” Branca said. : “Our first mission is to end deforestation and transition to low-carbon agriculture.”

She highlights that another urgent element is adaptation. “We will have to face extreme events such as floods and droughts. We will have to learn how to plan and live daily lives taking into account climate change.