The world’s leading climate scientists have given their strongest ever warnings about the worsening climate emergency, with many changes already effecting the planet now considered to be “irreversible” for centuries.

The glaring lack of action to decarbonise our economy continues to be on display for all to see, and the UN could not be putting their warnings any more bluntly.  The effects of our emissions are already being seen across the planet, yet we’re doing little to stop them.

“This report is a reality check,” said IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair Valérie Masson-Delmotte.

Others are calling it a “Code Red for Humanity”.

As a company helping the UK build a clean hydrogen energy economy we could not be more in tune with the need to effect radical change to the way we power our lives, to abate the disasters our planet is already dealing with.

The much anticipated report by the climate panel of the United Nations warns that without immediate mass reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, restricting global warming to even 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels “will be beyond reach” within two decades.

But worse than this, the report also warns that beyond a rise in temperatures of 1.5 degrees “tipping points” become increasingly likely. Tipping points refers to the “locking in of further global heating” with irreversible changes in the climate system.

Simply put, achieving these targets is impossible at the rate we are continuing to emit harmful CO2.

World leaders have now been provided with the definitive summary of modern climate science ahead of COP26, the U.N. climate talks being held in early November and hosted in Glasgow.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest findings, approved by 195 member states on Friday, handles the physical science basis of climate change, and how humans are changing the planet.

In the UK our Transport Sector accounts for approximately 27% of harmful carbon emissions, with our cities inevitably being the focal points.  The populations of these cities rely largely on public transport to move around, yet it is the public transport systems, of which buses play a huge part, that are responsible for a significant proportion of our daily emissions.

Everyday that big and heavy transport continues to burn its way through tanks of diesel, tonnes of toxic carbon continues to poison our air and raise the temperatures.

However, buses, that are currently some of the biggest carbon burners, can become heroes of decarbonisation, if governmental policy supports the changes required to clean up our transport systems.

Realtime data from Wrightbus on-board telematics shows the huge carbon savings already being made by the hydrogen buses in operation

Although legislation has emerged to stop sales of diesel buses by 2030 this phased approach is at odds with the immediate emissions emergency we are facing.

Yet thanks to a real-time Telematics system on board all Wrightbus zero-emission hydrogen buses, we are able to harvest powerful data from detailed daily analysis of the 33 hydrogen buses already operating in London, Aberdeen and other UK cities.  The buses are currently averaging 140miles per day, and are already showing the positive effects even a small number of hydrogen buses has on our emissions levels.

Based on this data the per annum carbon savings of 1,000 buses is calculated at 85,500 tonnes of carbon.

So 3,000 buses in a year would save over a quarter of a million tonnes of carbon per annum.

But the rollout of the hydrogen infrastructure required to support this emission-lowering solution for our public transport systems has been blocked by an as yet unpublished UK Hydrogen Strategy, now tipped to be released in the coming days.

The UK has the potential to become a global leader in renewable and low-carbon hydrogen technology, with numerous shovel-ready clean hydrogen projects ready to be delivered if government policy supports them.

As a nation the UK must now focus on rolling out the hydrogen technology already proven to be so effective in lowering emissions, whilst enabling the creation of thousands of high-skilled, green jobs, in sectors such as transport, low-carbon energy, and heavy industry.

This action is critical to stopping climate change and strengthening the future economy.

To learn more about Ryze Hydrogen click here.