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00:00 Well for more on this story we can cross to James Kirkham, Chief Scientific Advisor at
00:04 the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative.
00:07 Thank you for speaking with us here on France 24.
00:12 What to expect from this first summit of its kind?
00:15 Well today and tomorrow we're hearing from scientists about their priorities to address
00:22 the uncertainties about what's going to happen to the cryosphere.
00:26 So how much ice we're going to lose and how fast.
00:29 And this will then inform policy makers on the Friday about what we need to do to respond
00:35 to the changes that are coming because of global warming.
00:38 Now I never thought we'd be in a position where we could link what you're working on
00:43 to the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.
00:47 But fact is we've seen recently that at the UN, because you need the whole planet to agree
00:52 on what happens at the polls, there has been no agreement because the Russians, the Chinese
01:00 have been balking at it.
01:02 So how do you advance if you don't have the five permanent members of the Security Council
01:08 singing from the same hymn sheet?
01:09 You're right.
01:10 So there needs to be consensus over how we address these problems because they are global
01:16 issues and they touch every single country in the world, even nations that don't have
01:21 any ice in them.
01:22 In fact, some of the smallest countries, such as small island states, which have no ice
01:27 at all, are most affected by the losses in the polar regions.
01:32 The world has to come together to address this crisis and we need to put aside our differences
01:39 between countries and really bring forward radical action for the future of the whole
01:47 planet and put these aside for now because this is really going to define the future
01:52 of our children and the children of children in future generations.
01:57 Concretely, radical action, what's the low hanging fruit?
01:59 What's the first thing you would like to see?
02:02 Well, immediately we need to have radical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
02:08 So the 1.5 degree target, which we know for the cryosphere has to be a red line because
02:14 of changes which will be initiated above that value, it's still achievable.
02:19 It's still scientifically achievable.
02:21 And going past that 1.5 degree limit is a political choice, not a scientific choice.
02:29 And so we need to see groundbreaking reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the major
02:35 emitters.
02:36 We also need to see measures to adapt to the changes that are now locked in because many
02:41 of the changes from the cryosphere are already locked in by decades of emissions before now.
02:48 And we also need to be working on a mechanism to compensate countries that will experience
02:53 loss and damage because of effects like sea level rise, which are now locked in from cryosphere
02:58 loss that we can't avoid by future emissions reductions.
03:02 However, by acting now, we can still limit the worst of the damage.
03:06 Very briefly, James Kirkham, just because we've been talking a lot about Greenland,
03:10 we have a report on our website about it.
03:13 How much has it changed just in the past 10 years and how much will it change just in
03:16 the next 10 years?
03:18 So Greenland is changing extremely rapidly.
03:21 In fact, it's really surprising many of the researchers how quickly it's changing there.
03:27 It's currently tracking at the same level as the upper worst case predictions of the
03:31 IPCC.
03:33 And it's set to contribute substantially to sea level rise in the future.
03:37 So currently, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets contribute about a third to global
03:41 sea level rise.
03:42 The other two thirds are from mountain glacier loss and the thermal expansion of the ocean.
03:48 We're looking by the end of this century at sea level rise from these three sources, between
03:51 about half a metre to a metre, depending on our actions today.
03:56 And so these ice sheets are only just waking up to the changes, though.
04:00 And we're really concerned that if we continue to push the planet to ever warmer levels,
04:06 we'll cross into thresholds and tipping points, which will then make the loss of ice from
04:10 these ice sheets inevitable, which will play out for centuries to come.
04:14 A startling scenario.
04:15 James Kirkham, many thanks for joining us.
04:18 Thank you.
04:19 Stay with us.
04:20 More to come.
04:21 More news, plus today's business and sports.
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