Explained: Status check on world climate

Source: Indian Express

What is the news?

In the last few weeks, the world has seen unexpected floods in Europe and China, record-breaking heat-waves in the United States, and deadly forest fires in Siberia, and Turkey and Greece. Amid gloomy predictions of a continued rise in the frequency and intensity of such extreme weather events, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is expected to release its 6th Assessment report.

About the 6th assessment report

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will release the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report, the periodic status check, which is the most widely accepted scientific view of the state of the Earth’s climate. It reflects on latest scientific understanding of the climate system, how and why is it changing, and the impact of human activities on this process.
• The second and third parts of the report, dealing with the expected impacts of climate change, and the actions required to prevent the worst impacts, are slated to come out next year.

Significance of IPCC reports

All of them, starting from the first one in 1990, have been categorical in stating that

• The rise in global surface temperatures since the 1950s was most likely caused by human activities
• Any rise beyond 2°C, compared to the temperatures of the late 19th century, would make the Earth extremely difficult place to live for human beings, and thousands of other species of plants and animals.

The reports have also presented projections for temperature rise till 2100 under different scenarios and the kind of impacts that can be expected under each of these pathways.

Highlights of IPCC reports

What will be new in 6th Assessment report?

1. Regional Focus – Unlike the previous reports which focused on global scenarios, the 6th assessment report will be focusing on regional scenarios too.
2. Extreme events – There is expected to be bigger focus on extreme weather events, like the ones we have seen in the last few weeks. The report now will try to link whether a particular event was a result of climate change.
3. City-specific climate scenarios: Densely populated mega-cities are supposed to be among the most vulnerable to impacts of climate change. The Sixth Assessment Report is expected to present specific scenarios of the climate change impacts on cities and large urban populations, and also implications for key infrastructure.
4. To drive coordinated efforts IPCC is likely to integrate understanding of the situation, cross-link evidence and discuss trade-offs between different options or pathways

In the immediate future, the IPCC report could serve as the most important warning towards the rapidly closing window of opportunity to halt the rise in temperatures to unacceptable levels, and propel the governments to take more urgent actions.

Terms to Know

• IPCC
• UNFCCC
• Kyoto protocol