If you do not fight climate change, by the end of the century, many lands will be flooded, said Deputy Director General of the World Meteorological Organization Elena Manaenkova in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“If nothing is done at all, by the end of this century the average temperature will rise by 8 degrees. Accordingly, the ocean level will be about 30 meters higher,”she said. Rising ocean levels will flood sea-level cities, airports, railways and other infrastructure, she said.
“The Russian Federation has a huge amount of territory located in coastal areas at ocean level. One centimeter of the rise in water is the loss of several meters of land … Thus, the rise in ocean level will eat up a large amount of land. Most of the world's airports are located in the coastal zone, at water level. Railroad tracks are usually also laid at water level. Great economic damage will be inflicted,”said Manaenkova.
In addition, due to the melting of permafrost, which will inevitably begin when the average temperature of the planet rises, the entire infrastructure located in the northern regions of Russia may suffer.
“In Russia, and this is a very cold country, the second after Canada in terms of average annual temperature, permafrost, which makes up more than 60% of the territory, will melt. All infrastructure in the northern part of the Russian Federation was calculated on the fact that there is permafrost and a solid foundation underground. Now all this infrastructure may face great risks,”she added.
At the same time, Manaenkova noted as a positive factor the adoption of the Paris Declaration in 2015, in which the countries agreed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere from 2020 in order to keep the global average temperature rise below 2 degrees and make efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.
“Climate and weather is a global phenomenon. If one country burns a lot of coal, then this is reflected not on it, but on everyone else. Therefore, everyone depends on each other. There is not a single country that can do what it considers necessary and think that it will not affect others in any way, and vice versa,”- emphasized the Deputy Director General of WMO.
Elizaveta Isakova
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