Post misleadingly claims UN Report says CO2 deadlier than Cancer 

CLAIM

The UN is claiming that CO2 is deadlier than Cancer. 

FACT

The UN is not saying that CO2 is deadlier than cancer, instead, it is saying that the impact of climate change on health if carbon emissions remain high, could be up to twice as deadly as cancer in some parts of the world. 

WHAT THEY CLAIM

A Twitter Post published on November 10, 2022 used the ‘#ClimateScam’ hashtag and shared a Youtube Video with the claim that the UN has said that CO2 is deadlier than cancer which is a ‘wildly hysterical claim from the UN based on multiple layers of junk science’. 

WHAT WE FOUND

The Twitter post is misinterpreting the information presented in a UN report. The UN report that talks about cancer in the context of climate change actually says, “The impact of climate change on health if carbon emissions remain high, could be up to twice as deadly as cancer in some parts of the world, according to new data released on Friday by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Climate Impact Lab.” 

The report has mentioned the condition that when carbon emissions remain high it could turn deadly in certain parts of the world, unlike the claim that carbon dioxide can be deadlier than cancer. 

The Twitter post also includes a video that explains the importance of carbon dioxide and shows some irrelevant data which does not fit into the context of the report presented by the UN. 

What does the UN Report say? 

Taking the case of Dhaka, Bangladesh, the study estimates that additional deaths due to climate change have the possibility to rise to twice Bangladesh’s current annual death rate from all types of cancers, and about 10 times its annual road traffic fatalities. Their data also shows that climate change would increase mortality rates in Pakistan by nearly 67 deaths per 100,000 population and would cause more fatalities than strokes which is the country’s third leading cause of death. 

The rise in temperature due to climate change would have energy impacts, impacts on labor productivity, and human health. The report also analyzes both enhanced short-term climate pledges, and long-term strategies in which countries will lay out their plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.

Gases responsible for climate change

The data from USEPA shows that Carbon dioxide constitutes 78% of the global greenhouse emission followed by methane. 

The burning of fossil fuel is the primary source of CO2. The usage of land resources and deforestation due to human activities is also important source of CO₂. CO₂ can also be emitted from direct human-induced impacts on forest land use, like land clearing for agriculture, and soil degradation. Agricultural activities, waste management, energy use, and biomass burning collectively contribute to methane gas emissions.

The use of fertilizers is the primary source of N2O emissions. Burning of biomass also generates N2O. Industrial processes, refrigerators, and the use of painting products contribute to emissions of Fluorinated gasses like hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

Understanding Global warming potential

Greenhouse gases (GHGs) like Methane, Carbon dioxide, Nitrous Oxide and Chlorofluorocarbons warm the Earth by absorbing energy and slowing down the rate at which the radiation escapes from the Earth to space. Different Greenhouse gases can have different effects on the Earth’s warming. Two major ways in which these gases differ from one another are their ability to absorb energy (also known as their “radiative efficiency”), and the duration or how long they stay ( their “lifetime”) in the atmosphere.

According to United Nations Environmental Potential Agency, “The Global Warming Potential (GWP) was developed to allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gases. Specifically, it is a measure of how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO2). The larger the GWP, the more that a given gas warms the Earth compared to CO2 over that time period.” 

The time period usually used for GWPs is 100 years. GWPs provide a common unit of measure, which allows analysts to add up emissions estimates of different gases (e.g., to compile a national GHG inventory), and allows policymakers to compare emissions reduction opportunities across sectors and gases.

Global warming potential of major greenhouse gases

Source

This table highlights the fact that there are many other gases other than carbon dioxide which, though present in lesser amounts, have thousands of times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide. These gases also contribute to climate change. So, Climate change is not just about carbon dioxide, there are other gasses whose emission needs to be checked. The UN news urges the world to make both short-term and long-term climate change mitigation plans. Thus, by lowering carbon emissions the adverse impacts on human health can be curbed.