The IPCC is a UN body that assesses scientific information related to climate change, its impact, and potential solutions. The IPCC has three working groups that focus on physical science, impact and adaptation, and mitigation. In addition, there are special task forces that focus on greenhouse gas inventories and specific issues, such as climate change and land, and the ocean and cryosphere. The IPCC’s assessments provide governments with scientific information to develop climate policies, and the reports are drafted and reviewed to ensure accuracy, objectivity, and transparency. The IPCC publishes comprehensive scientific assessments every six to seven years, and the most recent Sixth Assessment Report was released in three working group contributions, along with several special reports. Finally, the IPCC’s work is supported by thousands of experts from all over the world who volunteer their time to provide comprehensive summaries of scientific papers published each year.
Urgent Climate Action for a Livable Future
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is crucial to take immediate and effective climate action to secure a livable and sustainable future for all. This can be achieved through climate-resilient development, which integrates measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide wider benefits.
The IPCC Chair, Hoesung Lee, highlighted that mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people but will also provide wider benefits. The IPCC’s Synthesis Report emphasizes the urgency of taking more ambitious action to address the pressing issue of climate change.
The challenge required to keep warming to 1.5°C is unprecedented in scale, as per the IPCC’s report in 2018. However, five years later, the challenge has become even greater due to the continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The pace and scale of what has been done so far, along with current plans, are insufficient to tackle climate change.
The report also emphasizes the significant impact of more than a century of burning fossil fuels, unsustainable land use, and unequal energy use, resulting in global warming of 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. The consequence of this is the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that have caused dangerous impacts on nature and people worldwide.
Every increment of warming results in rapidly escalating hazards. For instance, climate-driven food and water insecurity is expected to increase with increased warming, and more intense heatwaves, heavier rainfall, and other weather extremes further increase risks for human health and ecosystems. The risks become even more difficult to manage when they combine with other adverse events such as pandemics or conflicts.
The report underscores the losses and damages already being experienced and expected to continue, hitting the most vulnerable people and ecosystems the hardest. Therefore, taking the right action now could lead to transformational change essential for a sustainable and equitable world. It is crucial to address climate justice because those who have contributed the least to climate change are being disproportionately affected. In the last decade, deaths from floods, droughts, and storms were 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions where almost half of the world’s population lives.
In conclusion, the IPCC’s Synthesis Report emphasizes the urgency of taking immediate and effective climate action to secure a livable and sustainable future for all. This can be achieved through climate-resilient development, which integrates measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide wider benefits. Climate justice is crucial because the most vulnerable people and ecosystems are disproportionately affected by climate change.
Urgent Climate Action Needed for a Sustainable Future
Accelerated action to adapt to climate change is crucial in this decade to bridge the gap between existing adaptation and what is needed. Keeping warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels necessitates rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors. Emissions should be decreasing by now, and they will need to be cut by almost half by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5°C.
The solution lies in climate-resilient development, integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide wider benefits. For example, access to clean energy and technologies improves health, particularly for women and children, while low-carbon electrification, walking, cycling, and public transport enhance air quality, employment opportunities, and deliver equity. The economic benefits of air quality improvements for people’s health alone would be roughly the same as, or possibly larger than, the costs of reducing or avoiding emissions.
Climate-resilient development becomes more challenging with every increment of warming, making the choices we make in the next few years critical in determining our future and that of future generations. These choices should be rooted in our diverse values, worldviews, and knowledge, including scientific, Indigenous, and local knowledge, to facilitate climate-resilient development and enable locally appropriate, socially acceptable solutions.
Low-income and marginalized communities, including those living in informal settlements, could benefit the most from prioritizing climate risk reduction to achieve the greatest gains in wellbeing, according to one of the report’s authors, Christopher Trisos. However, accelerated climate action will only be possible with a significant increase in finance, as insufficient and misaligned finance is currently holding back progress.
Reducing existing barriers is essential to enable sustainable development and rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as there is sufficient global capital available. Governments, through public funding and clear signals to investors, play a key role in reducing these barriers. Investors, central banks, and financial regulators can also contribute to increasing finance for climate investments.
To achieve deep emissions reductions and climate resilience, tried and tested policy measures must be scaled up and applied more widely. Political commitment, coordinated policies, international cooperation, ecosystem stewardship, and inclusive governance are all crucial for effective and equitable climate action.
Urgent Climate Action Required for a Sustainable Future
Every community can reduce or avoid carbon-intensive consumption through shared technology, know-how and suitable policy measures, along with adequate finance. Simultaneously, significant investment in adaptation can avert rising risks, particularly for vulnerable groups and regions.
Climate, ecosystems, and society are interconnected, and effective and equitable conservation of approximately 30-50% of the Earth’s land, freshwater, and ocean will help ensure a healthy planet. Urban areas provide a global scale opportunity for ambitious climate action that contributes to sustainable development.
Changes in the food sector, electricity, transport, industry, buildings, and land-use can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make it easier for people to lead low-carbon lifestyles, which will also improve health and wellbeing. A better understanding of the consequences of overconsumption can help people make more informed choices.
Transformational changes are more likely to succeed where there is trust, everyone works together to prioritize risk reduction, and benefits and burdens are shared equitably, according to IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. As we live in a diverse world, everyone has different responsibilities and opportunities to bring about change, and some may require support to manage the change.
Temperature-Scale Equivalents
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1.1C = 2.0F
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1.5C = 2.7F
The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Synthesis Report in Numbers includes 6,841 review comments, with 47 governments and 5 observers contributing. The report’s core writing team has 49 members, with nine review editors, seven extended writing team authors, and 28 contributing authors. There are 41 women and 52 men, with 37 developing country authors and 56 developed country authors.
In conclusion, effective climate action requires shared technology, know-how and suitable policy measures, along with adequate finance, to reduce or avoid carbon-intensive consumption, and significant investment in adaptation to avert rising risks. Changes in various sectors can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve health and wellbeing. To bring about transformational change, everyone must work together to prioritize risk reduction, and benefits and burdens must be shared equitably.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a United Nations body that assesses the science related to climate change. It was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to provide scientific assessments to political leaders about climate change. The IPCC has 195 member states that are members of the UN or WMO, and thousands of experts from around the world volunteer their time as IPCC authors to assess scientific papers and provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
To ensure an objective and complete assessment, IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages with open and transparent reviews by experts and member governments. The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, which addresses the physical science of climate change; Working Group II, which focuses on the impact, adaptation, and vulnerability associated with climate change; and Working Group III, which deals with the mitigation of climate change. In addition, the IPCC has a Task Force on Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for measuring emissions and removals.
The IPCC assessments provide scientific information that governments can use to develop climate policies, making them a key input into international negotiations to tackle climate change. The IPCC publishes comprehensive scientific assessments every six to seven years, and the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) is the most recent cycle. The Working Group I contribution to AR6, “Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis,” was released on 9 August 2021. The Working Group II contribution, “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability,” was released on 28 February 2022, and the Working Group III contribution, “Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change,” was released on 4 April 2022. In addition, the IPCC has published several special reports during the Sixth Assessment Cycle, including “Global Warming of 1.5°C” in October 2018.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released several comprehensive scientific assessments, including the Fifth Assessment Report, which provided the main scientific input to the Paris Agreement. IPCC assessments provide governments with scientific information to develop climate policies. The IPCC has three working groups and a Task Force on Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develop methodologies for measuring emissions and removals. In addition, the IPCC has published several special reports, including the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Climate Change and Land, and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. For more information, visit http://www.ipcc.ch or the IPCC’s YouTube channel.
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