Will the new IPCC report be worth it?
This Monday, 26th of July 2021, nearly 195 governments have started negotiations under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). During these meetings, they will finalise the most important assessment since 2013. The document will then guide all these countries in their climate endeavours, right after the November COP26 summit kicks off.
What is IPCC?
IPCC was established in 1988. It consists of representatives from 195 governments. The governments commission the reports from numerous scientists, produced to guide global policy towards the most sustainable climate future.
In the past 30 years, the IPCC has been effectively summarising the general understanding on numerous climate-related issues. More than that, it has started to evaluate the impact of those less likely events that, if occur, will have a significant effect on nature, society, and economy.
Consequently, after such predictions are done, the IPCC also proposes certain solutions to tackle the exisiting and future crisis. It does this alongside the timeframe, within which the solutions are best to be implemented.
Most effective IPCC papers to date
Among the most crucial IPCC reports, there is probably the the 2013 assessment, which stressed that humans were the “dominant cause” of global warming since the 1950s. This document has been the framework for for the Paris climate agreement. To get a better idea on the most prominent multilateral environmental agreement (MEA) to this date, click here.
Interestingly, this year’s conclusions will be likewise emphasising the human-induced climate change. This will be done to highlight what kind of transformative change is needed on behalf of each individual. Possibly, the stronger wording there will lead to other meaningful MEAs. These MEAs, similar to Paris Agreement, will then have a chance to influence our status quo.
Another important report that has influenced the global path towards climate sustainability has been the special report on keeping global temperature rise under 1.5 °C, published back in 2018. This document has served as the basis for the generation of young people to take on the streets worldwide and ask governments to act justly on their future.
Upcoming report
More than 200 researchers have been cooperating in the past 7 years to produce another, upcoming report. Over 75,000 comments have been received on this document to this date, as it was drafted and re-written. As mentioned before, the key focus of this report will fall on the formulations behind the human-induced impact on climate change. The stronger these formulations are, the higher the likelihood for them to advance the concept of transformative change within the international political agenda.
Moreover, this report will bring forward the new chapter on weather and extreme events in a changing climate. This chapter is rather timely, considering the worst storms, floods or droughts experienced in Europe, Americas, and Asia in the past few weeks and years. Furthermore, there will be new information added on the sea-level rise and the state of the Arctic and Antarctic. The report will explain the impacts on these fields in case of further global temperature rise.
