Memorandum for the Petitioners | 38
action would lead to increasingly negative impacts on land and
reduce the prospect of sustainable development.!75
5.23. The evidence of the IPCC is clear and unequivocal: climate
change is already having major impacts on natural systems, human health,
livelihoods, food security, the achievement of SDGs, and human rights.
5.24. As stated by the recent IPCC SRI.5 and SRCCL, and reported
in the United Nations Special Rapporteur’s on the Right to a Healthy
Environment’s 2019 Safe Climate Report, at current temperature levels,
“humanity is already experiencing the frequency, intensity, and duration of
extreme weather events, melting of glaciers and ice sheets, rising sea levels,
storm
surges,
saltwater
intrusion,
ocean
acidification,
changes
in
precipitation, flooding, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, increased air
pollution, desertification, water shortages, the destruction of ecosystems,
biodiversity loss, and the spread of waterborne and vector-borne disease.”!6
5.25. Some experts in the National Inquiry have submitted that the best
climate science indicates that, to protect the earth’s systems, the long-term
increase in the average global surface temperature of the Earth above pre-
industrial temperatures must stay below 1°C.!27
5.26. Peer-reviewed research shows that populations around the world
are already experiencing significant and varied impacts from the 1°C warming
that has occurred. These impacts constitute harbingers of far more dangerous,
irreversible, and uncontrollable changes to come, as climate and biological
systems pass critical tipping points.!** As the science indicates, there are no
safe levels of warming.
C.
Impacts felt and
attributable
to
activities
projected
specific
can be
human
5.27. According to IPCC ARS, “the causes of observed changes in the climate system, as well as in any natural or human system impacted by
climate, are established following a consistent set of methods. Detection
addresses the question of whether climate or a natural or human system
affected by climate has actually changed in a statistical sense, while
25 Id. Sec. D3, p. 40.
26 UN Human Rights (15 July 2019), Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Issue of Human Rights
Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment (hereinafter,
“UNSR Safe Climate Report”), p. 25, available at https://undocs.org/en/A/74/161 (last accessed on 12
September 2019).
"27 Joint Summary of the Amicus Curiae, supra note 50, pp. 34-35 (citations omitted).
128 fd.
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents