The UN’s climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has reported that the pace and scale of actions by countries so far and their current plans are insufficient ahead of a stock taking by countries to assess progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement later this year.
“We are walking when we should be sprinting,” said IPCC chair Hoesung Lee at the launch of the Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report. At the current pace the IPCC’s Synthesis Report, the final installment of the sixth assessment cycle, states that the world is likely to breach the target of restricting temperature rise to 1.5C by 2040. “Humanity is on thin ice — and that ice is melting fast,” warned UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The report does more than deliver a dire warning. It provides a better assessment of risk and it offers hope. “The climate time-bomb is ticking. But today’s IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb. It is a survival guide for humanity,” said Guterres.
In this context, scientists involved in finalising the report point to the focus on solutions. Multiple, feasible, and effective options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change that are currently available, have been assessed in the report.
“The report focused on solutions in more concrete terms of what can be actually done,” said Aditi Mukherjee, who was part of the Core Writing Team for the Synthesis Report. Drawing on her work as Contributing Lead Author for the working group II report on adaption, Mukherjee explains that the synthesis report considers a “large number of adaptation policies and makes the point that adaptation option could be very context specific.
Something that would improve resilience in one context could be maladaptive in another. Therefore, to make the correct decisions it is necessary to hold consultations that include local voices, those people who would be most affected.”
Scientists said the report underscored the urgency of taking more ambitious action. “It shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all,” said the IPCC head.
Stressing the importance of taking rapid and ambitious action, Christopher Trisos, a member of the Core Writing Team, said the report makes clear that “action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change is more urgent that previously assessed.”
Trisos, who was in charge of the chapter on Africa in the assessment report, added “the integrated assessments in the report demonstrate the linkages between adaptation and mitigation actions and that there are multiple benefits for ecosystems and human health in integrating adaptation and mitigation.”