Photo credit: azrainman

A new report from WWF says that climate change is happening much faster than the scientists have predicated earlier. The report says that we must take action on a global scale to avert devastating climate effects such as more and heavier storms, flooding, droughts, crops failures, collapse of eco systems on land and sea and rising sea levels just to name a few.

Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Professor of Climatology and Environmental Sciences at the Université catholique de Louvain and newly elected Vice Chair of the IPCC, said that “it is clear that climate change is already having a greater impact than most scientists had anticipated, so it’s vital that international mitigation and adaptation responses become swifter and more ambitious.”

He also said, like we here on Green Blog have pointed out several times, that the 2°C climate target that the EU have agreed on (that Italy and Poland tried to wreck) is not enough to combat climate change:

“The last IPCC report has shown that the reasons for concern are now stronger, and this should lead the EU to plead for a lower temperature target than the 2°C they adopted in 1996. But even with a 2°C target, the IPCC says that emission reductions between 25 and 40% compared to 1990 are needed by 2020 from developed countries. Reductions by 20% are therefore insufficient,” Jean-Pascal van Ypersele said.

The WWF wants the EU to take the lead in climate change. Instead of a 20% emission reduction by 2020 they say the EU should “adopt an emission reduction target of at least 30% below 1990 levels by 2020″. WWF also says that the emission reductions should be made inside the EU and not being outsourced to Third World countries.

“If the European Union wants to be seen as leader at UN talks in Copenhagen next year, and to help secure a strong global deal to tackle climate change after 2012, then it must stop shirking its responsibilities and commit to real emissions cuts within Europe,” said Dr. Tina Tin, Climate Scientist and author of the report.

Instead of funding their offsets in Third World countries the WWF asks the EU to instead provide these countries with “substantial support and funding” to help them “tackle future climate change and adapt to those impacts that are already unavoidable”.

“Climate change is a major challenge to the future of mankind and the environment, and this sobering overview highlights just how critical it is that EU Environment Ministers discussing the EU legislations against climate change today commit to a strong climate and energy package, in order to ensure a low carbon future,” said Dr. Tina Tin.