Professor Corinne Le Quéré CBE FRS, Royal Society Research Professor of Climate Change Science and Professor at the University of East Anglia.
Special address during the Royal Society’s Women and the future of science conference.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today.
I want to talk about the future. Mark Carney – Canadian Prime Minister, former Bank of England Governor – made a special address in Davos earlier this year.
In it, he laid out the brutal reality of a rupture that is ongoing in the world order, with the breakdown of cooperation and multilateral consensus among countries that have underpinned international relations for decades.
Carney’s rupture has hit science head on.
We are seeing deliberate efforts by powerful world leaders in the US and elsewhere, to undermine science and scientists, demolish institutions, and erase scientific findings.
The recognition of the value of science for society can no longer be taken for granted – so today seems a good day to remind ourselves what has science ever done for us.
The steam engine, electricity, semiconductors, computers, gene editing, vaccines.
Science is behind all great discoveries.
Many female scientists and scientists of all origins have contributed to these discoveries, as we have heard today.
The finding that our climate is warming because of human activities also results from science. From understanding physics and observing our planet.
We know the consequences of climate change, which include increasingly extreme heat events, growing flood risks, and more powerful storms. We know of tipping points in the Earth system and of the risks entailed if we cross them.
We also know from science that the only way to slow down climate change substantially is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And the only way to stop it completely is to achieve net zero CO2 emissions globally.
Because of our scientific knowledge of climate change we have in fact already begun to act.
We have already changed the trajectory of global emissions and avoided around one degree of global warming and its impacts. This is an enormous success, and we should celebrate what we have done so far.
35 countries have reduced their emissions in the past decade while growing their economies, including the UK. Emissions in China have not increased in the past two years and are probably at or near their peak.
These successes resulted from policies and technology investments informed by science that have cut down costs and provided alternatives to the use of fossil fuels for energy.
Despite past success, we are today still facing warming levels that are well above those needed to prevent dangerous interference with the climate system.
Can we do more to limit climate change, given that some powerful world leaders have chosen to dismiss the risks? Yes.
Does it matter that not all world leaders are onboard? No. What matters is how much we reduce global emissions, even if some countries work in the opposite direction.
All cuts in emissions will result in lower warming levels, and every fraction of a degree of warming avoided will reduce climate risks for all.
The middle power countries – as Mark Carney describes them – including the UK, have largely embraced a transition towards electrification powered by renewable and nuclear energy.
In China, clean energy technologies contribute ten per cent to the country’s economy today – that is a staggering two trillion dollars annually.
In India and in poorer countries, solar power supports economic development. Solar power is now the cheapest source of energy in the world.
This transition reduces our dependence on imported oil and gas and reduces our exposure to rising energy prices during conflicts such as the Iranian and Ukrainian wars.
There is enough momentum in this transition to make a major dent in global emissions.
But – we must now also face the reality that global warming will continue for some time and will reach levels that could have been avoided with increased cooperation.
Protecting our populations, our infrastructures, ecosystems and assets from the growing impacts of climate change through adaptation is possible, but it requires more – not less – science.
I think it is time that we look the rupture in the eye. That we call out deliberate efforts to undermine science and scientists, as they serve no one. And that we work with science to develop and implement the many solutions that work for us, and for others around our one planet.
