Arctic Temperatures To Rise 3-5 Degrees By 2050: UN

Even if the world were to cut emissions in line with the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, winter temperatures in the Arctic would rise three to five degrees Celsius by 2050 and five to nine degrees by 2080, devastating the region and unleashing sea level rises worldwide, a new report by the UN Environment warned on Thursday.

Rapidly thawing permafrost could even accelerate climate change further and derail efforts to meet the Paris Agreement’s long-term goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to two degrees Celsius, warns the report titled “Global Linkages — A graphic look at the changing Arctic”.

By 2050, four million people and around 70 per cent of today’s Arctic infrastructure, will be threatened by thawing permafrost.

Other environmental pressures on the Arctic identified by the paper, released at the ongoing United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi that will conclude on Friday, include ocean acidification and plastic pollution.