Urgent climate action can secure a liveable future for all – IPCC report

In 2018, IPCC highlighted the unprecedented scale of the challenge required to keep warming to 1.5°C.

Five years later, that challenge has become even greater due to a continued increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The pace and scale of what has been done so far, and current plans, are insufficient to tackle climate change.

More than a century of burning fossil fuels as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use has led to global warming of 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. This has resulted in more frequent and more intense extreme weather events that have caused increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world.

Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits. This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all, said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee.

Every increment of warming results in rapidly escalating hazards. More intense heatwaves, heavier rainfall, and other weather extremes further increase risks for human health and ecosystems.

In every region, people are dying from extreme heat. Climate-driven food and water insecurity is expected to increase with increased warming. When the risks combine with other adverse events, such as pandemics or conflicts, they become even more difficult to manage.

Losses and damages in sharp focus

The report,AR6 Synthesis Report Climate Change 2023approved during a week-long session in Interlaken, Switzerland brings into sharp focus the losses and damages we are already experiencing and will continue into the future, hitting the most vulnerable people and ecosystems especially hard.

Taking the right action now could result in the transformational change essential for a sustainable, equitable world.

气候正义,因为那些是至关重要的contributed least to climate change are being disproportionately affected. Almost half of the world’s population lives in regions that are highly vulnerable to climate change. In the last decade, deaths from floods, droughts, and storms were 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions said Aditi Mukherji, one of the 93 authors of this Synthesis Report, the closing chapter of the Panel’s sixth assessment.

In this decade, accelerated action to adapt to climate change is essential to close the gap between existing adaptation and what is needed.

Meanwhile, keeping warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels requires deep, rapid, and sustained GHG emissions reductions in all sectors. Emissions should be decreasing by now and will need to be cut by almost half by 2030 if warming is to be limited to 1.5°C.

Clear path ahead

The solution lies in climate-resilient development. This involves integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid GHG emissions in ways that provide wider benefits.

For example, access to clean energy and technologies improves health, especially for women and children; low-carbon electrification, walking, cycling, and public transport enhance air quality, improve health, and employment opportunities and deliver equity.

The economic benefits for people’s health from air quality improvements alone would be roughly the same, or possibly even larger than the costs of reducing or avoiding emissions.

Climate resilient development becomes progressively more challenging with every increment of warming. This is why the choices made in the next few years will play a critical role in deciding our future and that of generations to come.

To be effective, these choices need to be rooted in diverse values, worldviews, and knowledge, including scientific knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge, and local knowledge. This approach will facilitate climate-resilient development and allow locally appropriate, socially acceptable solutions.

The greatest gains in wellbeing could come from prioritizing climate risk reduction for low-income and marginalized communities, including people living in informal settlements. Accelerated climate action will only come about if there is a many-fold increase in finance. Insufficient and misaligned finance is holding back progress, said Christopher Trisos, one of the report’s authors.

Enabling sustainable development

There is sufficient global capital to rapidly reduce GHG emissions if existing barriers are reduced.

Increasing finance to climate investments is important to achieve global climate goals. Governments, through public funding and clear signals to investors, are key in reducing these barriers. Investors, central banks, and financial regulators can also play their part.

There are tried and tested policy measures that can work to achieve deep emissions reductions and climate resilience if they are scaled up and applied more widely.

Political commitment, coordinated policies, international cooperation, ecosystem stewardship, and inclusive governance are all important for effective and equitable climate action.

如果技术、专有技术和合适的沉降问题的政策res are shared, and adequate finance is made available now, every community can reduce or avoid carbon-intensive consumption.

同时,与重要investment in adaptation, we can avert rising risks, especially for vulnerable groups and regions.

Climate, ecosystems, and society are interconnected. Effective and equitable conservation of approximately 30-50 percent of the Earth’s land, freshwater, and ocean will help ensure a healthy planet.

Urban areas offer a global-scale opportunity for ambitious climate action that contributes to sustainable development.

Changes in the food sector, electricity, transport, industry, buildings, and land use can reduce GHG emissions. At the same time, they can make it easier for people to lead low-carbon lifestyles, which will also improve health and well-being.

A better understanding of the consequences of overconsumption can help people make more informed choices.

Transformational changes are more likely to succeed where there is trust, where everyone works together to prioritize risk reduction, and where benefits and burdens are shared equitably. We live in a diverse world in which everyone has different responsibilities and different opportunities to bring about change. Some can do a lot while others will need support to help them manage the change, Hoesung Lee said.