This July 1, 2020, photo shows a sign marking the beginning of the city’s “green transport zone,” where cars that emit large volumes of carbon dioxide are banned from entering. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — If greenhouse gases are continuously emitted at the current level, average annual temperatures on the Korean Peninsula will rise by up to 7 C by 2100, pushing the people into a serious crisis, a government report warned Monday.
The report published by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said the peninsula’s temperatures will also climb by 1.8 C by 2040 as long as there is little change in the volume of its greenhouse gas emissions.
If emissions of greenhouse gases are minimized, the long-term temperature rise will be limited to 1.6 C by 2040 and 2.6 C by 2100, according to the report compiled by the KMA on the basis of the sixth assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Under the so-called high carbon scenario, in which the peninsula’s temperatures go up by 7 C by 2100, the destruction of the ozone layer will result in a serious crisis for humanity, the report said.
Extreme climate phenomena will also begin to soar from the middle of this century, quadrupling the number of heat wave days to 93.4 annually by 2100.
Precipitation on the peninsula will decrease 3 percent by 2040 but increase 4 percent between 2041 and 2060 and 14 percent by 2100, while the number of days of extreme rainfall will rise 30 percent by the end of this century, the report predicted.
The KMA said its long-term climate change report will be utilized by all government offices in carrying out their greenhouse gas reduction targets and mapping out climate change-related policies.
(Yonhap)
