UN warns of ‘irreversible change’ in draft climate report

Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing dramatically and will wreak havoc on the climate in the near future, the United Nations said in a draft report.

The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned of “severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts” if emissions continue to grow at a similar pace to recent years. The conclusions are in a draft report obtained by The New York Times.

{mosads}In a similar fashion to other recent U.N. reports about the climate, the most recent draft says that many severe weather patterns that have already been observed were caused by climate change. These include historic droughts, sea level increases and extreme volumes of rain, the Times reported Tuesday.

“Human influence has been detected in warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reduction in snow and ice, and in global mean-sea-level rise; and it is extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century,” the report said, according to the Times.

The IPCC is due to release the final version of the report in early November. It is part of a series of reports the body has planned on climate change over the past year, including in March and April.

The Times characterized the latest draft as using “blunter, more forceful language” than previous reports.

It largely blamed the burning of fossil fuels, and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions, for climate change. It also found that companies and governments have found more than four times as much fossil fuel as could be burned while keeping climate change at a safe level.

The IPCC noted efforts to cut greenhouse gases, but said that past emissions levels mean that little can be done to stop some of the worst effects of climate change.