Experts warn of ticking climate bomb at New York Times conference

Home > Business > Industry

print dictionary print

Experts warn of ticking climate bomb at New York Times conference

Lee Hoe-sung, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), speaks during the New York Times A New Climate event held at Bexco, Busan, on May 26. [PARK SEONGGWAN]

Lee Hoe-sung, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), speaks during the New York Times A New Climate event held at Bexco, Busan, on May 26. [PARK SEONGGWAN]

 
BUSAN — Time is ticking on the climate bomb, and it is running down faster than we thought.
 
Many look to technologies amid a rising sense of urgency, hoping that new breakthroughs will save humanity — but is that really the fix-all solution we are looking for?

 
“We need a portfolio of technology, and certainly, technology will come to solve this problem [of the climate crisis,]” said Lee Hoe-sung, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on May 26 during the New York Times A New Climate conference held at Bexco, Busan.

 
“But I want to highlight that the technology will create its own problems — and it is not a good idea to prefer one technology over others,” Lee emphasized.

 
“What is important is to see whether the technology contributes to reducing carbon footprints in this world, and at that point, I believe, the scientists and also the fellows in the scientific communities must have some sense of humility in this regard.”

 
The New York Times A New Climate event ran for two days from May 25 at Bexco, alongside the World Climate Industry Expo, Korea’s biggest-ever climate tech fair.

 
A looming sense of urgency over accelerating climate change was not without cautious optimism in Busan during the live journalism event, where government officials, industry leaders, scientists, and activists gathered to discuss global efforts to mitigate and adapt to the rising temperature.

 
“We are not in the luxury of worrying the planet,” warned the IPCC chair, referring to some of the most popular campaign slogans such as “save the planet” or “protect the polar bears.”

 
“We [the human beings] are, in fact, suffering from climate change,” stressed Lee.

 
The World Meteorological Organisation warned on May 9 that the global temperature is likely to rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, at least for a short period of time, from pre-industrial levels in the upcoming five years.
 
Under the Paris Agreement signed in 2015, nations around the world set a 1.5-degree Celsius ceiling to limit global warming by the end of the 21st century.
 
The IPCC chair called for faster, stronger and more proactive actions from governments while pointing out that the increasing trend of protectionism is posing yet another threat to addressing the climate issue at the international level.

 
“It is a race between the rate of the adverse impact of climate change and the rate of our efforts to reduce the emissions,” said Lee. “And we are losing this race.”

 
The energy transition was undoubtedly one of the major topics of the Busan event, as the shift away from fossil fuels gains momentum across the globe. Various possibilities were explored, from renewables and electrification of transportation to hydrogen and nuclear power.

 
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, left, speaks during the New York Times A New Climate event held at Bexco, Busan, on May 25. [YONHAP]

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, left, speaks during the New York Times A New Climate event held at Bexco, Busan, on May 25. [YONHAP]

 
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who appeared on the stage on May 25 for an interview, put emphasis on nuclear power as well as renewables.
 
"Renewable energy and nuclear power will be the two key elements" in Korea's plan to achieve the carbon reduction target, said the prime minister, explaining that "we are now concentrating on revitalizing our overall framework and supply chain [in the nuclear sector], which had been a little bit discouraged in a direct or indirect way during the last five years."


"Nuclear power can be the basic energy which will complement the weak points of renewable energy," namely the intermittence of solar and wind power, said Han, confident in the public support saying that "a lot of people are supporting that [nuclear power]," from both at home and abroad, especially after the global energy crisis last year.
 
Yet replacing fossil fuels with less-carbon-heavy energy may not be enough.
 
“In order to reach carbon neutrality, we need to, for the first time in human history, reduce the combined quantity of energy consumption by 15 to 20 percent worldwide,” said Lee Sang-hoon, president of the Korea Energy Agency (KEA) on May 26 during a panel discussion themed “Finding the Perfect Mix: The Future of Clean Energy.”
 
“As we need to cut energy consumption without enduring any inconveniences or sacrifices, keeping the current energy service intact as it is, improving the energy efficiency is the key,” said Lee.

 
The KEA chief cited electrification in the transportation sector, such as the wider adoption of electric cars and hydrogen-fueled vessels, as well as energy-efficient building designs for ongoing measures to cut carbon emissions.

 
Yet the question still lingers: will technology really be the solution to all?

 
As rising sea levels pose palpable threats to local communities living in coastal areas, natural-based solutions were discussed as one of the possible countermeasures to protect human society as well as the ecosystem.

 
“No matter how much technology we have at hand, if we don’t protect and restore nature, the impact of climate change and carbon emissions will continue to spiral out of hand as they have been,” said Ashely Bang, a principal consultant at the Biodiversity Consultancy.

 
From left: Doug Schorzman, Asia editor of The New York Times; Ashley Bang, a principal consultant at the Biodiversity Consultancy; Sandeep Sangupta, global policy lead for climate change at the International Union for Conservation of Nature; and Patricia Ricard, on screen, chair of Paul Ricard Oceanographic Institute in a panel discussion themed ″Protecting Our Coasts: The Promise of Nature-Based Resilience″ on May 26 during The New York Times A New Climate event in Busan. [PARK SEONGGWAN]

From left: Doug Schorzman, Asia editor of The New York Times; Ashley Bang, a principal consultant at the Biodiversity Consultancy; Sandeep Sangupta, global policy lead for climate change at the International Union for Conservation of Nature; and Patricia Ricard, on screen, chair of Paul Ricard Oceanographic Institute in a panel discussion themed ″Protecting Our Coasts: The Promise of Nature-Based Resilience″ on May 26 during The New York Times A New Climate event in Busan. [PARK SEONGGWAN]

 
Natural-based solutions can be building green infrastructure such as green walls or protecting salt marshes and wetlands to buffer storm waves.

 
“Nature is the oldest technology in the book,” said Sandeep Sangupta, global policy lead for climate change at the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

 
“The latest analysis, for example, estimates that mangrove ecosystems alone provide coastal production benefits of over $65 billion a year, safeguarding 15 million people across the world,” Sangupta explained.  
 
Sangupta, however, also stressed that nature’s ability in mitigating the climate crisis can be realized only when the global decarbonization effort goes forward.

 
“Natural-based solutions aren’t to be viewed, or shouldn’t be viewed, as a panacea to addressing the climate crisis,” said Sangupta.

 
“The IPCC reminds us, [with] every increment of warming, the ability of the natural ecosystem to provide benefits reduces because they themselves are vulnerable to climate change,” emphasized Sangupta.
 
The Busan event marked the New York Times’ first live journalism event on climate in Asia. The New York Times established one of the first climate desks in 2017 and convened climate events in Glasgow and London in the United Kingdom, New York and San Francisco in the United States and Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)