The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) dropped its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on March 20, 2023.
Drawing on the findings of over 700 scientists, this IPCC synthesis report provides the most comprehensive, best available scientific assessment of climate change to date.
Across nearly 8 000 pages, the report makes for grim reading indeed. The AR6 details the devastating consequences of rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions around the world, the destruction of homes, the loss of livelihoods, and the fragmentation of communities, for example, as well as the increasingly dangerous and irreversible risks should we fail to change course.
Here is a summary of what you need to know:
We’ve shot ourselves in the foot
The first major point raised in the summary for policymakers is that human activities, mainly the burning of fossil fuels that powered industrialisation over the last two centuries, have driven higher greenhouse gas emissions, which have undoubtedly caused global temperatures to rise to 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels.
Climate modelling has predicted that, as current trends stand, we are well on the way to shooting past the target limit of 1.5 degrees celsius of warming.
Those who did the most damage are the least affected
Higher global temperatures have resulted in weather extremes. These are heat waves, droughts, heavy rainfall and tropical cyclones which have caused massive losses and damage to nature and people.
We’re talking about cyclone Freddy, the California atmospheric rivers, the East African droughts, the Pakistan floods, the list goes on.
The fact is that vulnerable communities, those in developing nations, who contributed the least to the current crisis are most affected. They just do not have the resources to adapt or mitigate these impacts.
The report indicated that "between 2010 and 2020, human mortality from floods, droughts and storms was 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions, compared to regions with very low vulnerability."
We need to keep the coal in the hole, the oil in the soil and the gas in the grass
More greenhouse gas emissions mean more global warming, which means intensifying climate risks and more loss and damage. Yes, things can get worse and worse they are getting.
To limit warming to 1.5°C, we need to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by half before 2030 and at current trends, this seems like an impossible feat.
The IPCC lists solar and wind energy among the "technically viable" and "cost-effective" options we have at our disposal. Others include improving energy efficiency, the way we manage
forests and grasslands and reducing food waste and loss.
“It’s too expensive”
Look, we don’t need scientific studies to see that climate change is already affecting humanity and the Earth. Just search “floods” or “cyclone” and click on the news tab.
We need to adapt to these impacts but apparently, the world powers do not have the financial resources to enable the global south to do this.
IPCC researchers said that "current global financial flows for adaptation are insufficient for, and constrain implementation of, adaptation options, especially in developing countries.”
Finance for adaptation has largely come from public sources, and the IPCC calls on more commitment from the private sector, ie. “private polluters.”
Those with the means should help those without
We all have a role to play, governments, businesses, banks and consumers.
More importantly, we need to play as a team when it comes to knowledge-sharing, the transfer of technology and providing financial resources. Drought in East Africa may push up coffee prices in Europe, and disease in South America will halt tropical fruit exports.
Climate change will affect us all.
IPCC chair Dr Hoesung Lee in a briefing noted that rich nations have the technology and finance to achieve climate goals.
They also have the responsibility to help other regions lacking in resources so “all of us” can have a “better future”.