Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, former vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said: "An overemphasis on geoengineering to regulate global warming could put the planet on a riskier trajectory."
If the world were to warm more than 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial times, it would mean significantly more heat waves, extreme precipitation and drought than if it stayed below that threshold. Most of these impacts will leave irreversible marks on ecology and people, said Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, former vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world's largest collective of climate experts. An overemphasis on geoengineering to regulate global warming could put the planet on a higher-risk trajectory, he said in an email interview before the IPCC's summary report was released on Monday. Ypersele is a Belgian climatologist attending the IPCC meeting in Interlaken, Switzerland, which is running overtime.