IPCC Report on Climate Change Impacts, Adaption & Vulnerability
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is in the process of delivering its Sixth Assessment Report.
Working Group I, on the physical science basis of Climate Change, was published on 9 August 2021, and played a major part in setting the parameters for the debate on climate science at COP26 in Glasgow, November 2021. We wrote about that report here.
Working Group II, on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, was published on 28 February 2022. We have set out a brief summary of this report below, with a link to the in depth Q&A from Carbon Brief.
Working Group III, on mitigation of climate change, is expected to report in April 2022.
The IPCC will publish a Synthesis Report bringing together its overall assessments later in 2022.
Also worth noting is the IPCC’s Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.
The world is understandably distracted by the terrible events surrounding the invasion of Ukraine. World energy markets are convulsed by surging prices in oil and gas markets. This is contributing to huge price increases for consumers, many of whom may feel that climate change is a longer term issue (it isn’t) and that they need no more bad news (which is fully understandable).
Nevertheless, the latest report from the IPCC Working Group II on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability is stark, and of profound importance. It covers all regions of the world, and all significant and threatened ecosystems, and fundamental questions such as the impacts of climate on supplies of water, food, the spread of disease, the disappearance of species and the habitability of large parts of the planet.
To make any sense at all of the threat of climate change, you have to start with the best available science, which is what the IPCC offers. The latest report concludes –
“The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”
The report makes clear that some impacts on natural and human systems from climate change are already irreversible. Approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people and a high proportion of species are highly vulnerable to its effects. Near term actions that limit global warming to 1.5oC would substantially reduce projected losses and damages – but warming of 1.1oC has already occurred. If we allow the 1.5oC level to be exceeded multiple climate hazards will occur simultaneously.
Figure SPM.5 Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, the Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report
There has been some progress with adaptation, but it is unevenly distributed. There are feasible and effective adaptation options which can reduce risks to people and nature, but we are reaching adaptation limits. The report calls for political commitment and follow-through, institutional frameworks, policies and instruments with clear goals and priorities, enhanced knowledge on impacts and solutions, mobilisation of and access to adequate financial resources, monitoring and evaluation, and inclusive governance processes. Climate resilient development is more urgently needed than ever before.
Carbon Brief has prepared a summary of this sobering report in their in depth Q&A below -