15 INSIGHT | Focus On The year 2021 will be remembered mainly for the Covid-19 pandemic. But it was a key year for climate change as well. In August 2021, the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report – widely seen to be the most authoritative and up to date source on the topic -- asserted that it is indisputable that climate change is caused by human activity. As a result, 197 countries subscribed to the statement that “Recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid, and intensifying, and unprecedented in thousands of years.” In October 2021, 197 negotiating parties met in Glasgow at the COP26 summit and explicitly committed to reducing the use of coal, and over 140 countries set net zero targets. The Glasgow Climate Pact reaffirms the Paris commitment to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C by the middle of this century. But the planet risks temperature increases much higher than that. The world is on track right now to hit +2.7C of warming by 2100, the UN said in October. Europe, is currently at +2.2C. Every additional increment of global warming increases the projected changes in extreme weather, he said. For example, even if temperature increase is limited at 1.5C, the frequency of events that would have occurred once every 10 years increases to a likely 4.1 times every decade, and at 2.0C a once-in-10-year event would occur 5.6 times more frequently. For events occurring once on an average of every 50 years, the increase is even more marked. At 1.5C, the event would be likely to occur 8.6 times more frequently, rising to 13.9 times at a global warming level of 2.0C. October 2021 when Glasgow where 197 negotiating parties over 140 countries to set net zero targets COP26 SUMMIT
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