Latest IPCC Report Approved and the Message is Clear: Time is Running Out
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On Sunday, national governments gave their final approvals on the latest IPCC report after approval was delayed due to battles between rich and developing countries over emissions targets and financial aid to vulnerable nations. According to a report from EuroNews, the IPCC report was intended to be approved last Friday, but was repeatedly delayed as officials from big nations such as China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the United States and the European Union negotiated around specific wording of key phrases found in the report. After approvals finally happened, the report was published Monday afternoon and made some very clear statements regarding what is possible and what the stakes are when looking at climate change.
What is the IPCC
The IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The yearly reports the IPCC publishes are compiled by hundreds of scholars and are ultimately approved by the representatives of 195 countries. Directly from the IPCC,
The IPCC prepares comprehensive Assessment Reports about the state of scientific, technical and socio-economic knowledge on climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for reducing the rate at which climate change is taking place. It also produces Special Reports on topics agreed to by its member governments, as well as Methodology Reports that provide guidelines for the preparation of greenhouse gas inventories. The IPCC is working on the Sixth Assessment Report which consists of three Working Group contributions and a Synthesis Report. The Working Group I contribution was finalized in August 2021, the Working Group II contribution in February 2022 and the Working Group III contribution in April 2022.
Sixth Assessment Report: 2023
The newest report that was just approved on Monday is the AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023. This report doesn’t mince words and clearly outlines what must happen in terms of climate change and what stakes we are up against. The culmination of more than six years of work by thousands of climate scientists contributing to the IPCC has summarized in this newest report that “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.”
Photo by Marcin Jozwiak on Unsplash
The 36 page summary of the report highlights the present impacts and risks of climate change based on how things are going today. It continues to offer a variety of options around how we can adapt both to a hotter planet as well as prevent the Earth from warming to over 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Simply put, the core takeaway from the report is that a fast reduction in fossil fuels must happen if the world is to stay within a relatively safe range of warming. Ultimately, the continued usage of fossil fuels is harming the planet and the people to an extremely dangerous degree.
As we stand today, the Earth will pass that 1.5 degree threshold in the first half of the 2030s and the action we take now will determine the trajectory of what happen for generations to come. In order to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, greenhouse gas emissions would need to be cut nearly in half by 2030 according to this IPCC report.
“This is the stone cold truth laid out in unassailable science by the world’s top climate experts. We’re hurtling down the road to ruin and running out of time to change course,” - Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council
There is Hope if There is Action
While the IPCC report leaves very little to the imagination in terms of what will happen should we warm to unmanageable levels, it does outline that there is hope if we take action immediately. The clearest path to a more sustainable world is through technology that we already have available. Change needs to happen and it needs to happen now. As previously mentioned, In order to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, greenhouse gas emissions would need to be cut nearly in half by 2030 and there would be no additional carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by the early 2050s.
“Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee said in a statement. The report “shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a livable sustainable future for all.”
Remedies to the damage already done and mitigation tactics to avoid further warming include everything from expansion of solar and wind power to energy efficiency measures, to reducing food waste, to even adjusting infrastructure to encourage walking or cyclists. The biggest mitigation tactic of course will be to limit or eliminate the use of fossil fuels all together. This report continues with other “climate remedies” that are broadly defined and takes care to highlight that among these remedies, our world needs to strengthen social safety nets for those most vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
In terms of what’s next, the answer is clear. Action.
Sources:
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/climate-change-un-ipcc-rcna75670
https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/03/17/what-is-the-ipcc-report-heres-what-to-expect-from-the-latest-un-climate-change-assessment?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=Social
https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6syr/pdf/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf
https://www.ipcc.ch/
