IPCC report: urgent need to ramp up climate action
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today launched its Synthesis Report, the final instalment of the sixth assessment cycle. The report underscores that urgent measures are needed now to avoid climate breakdown, because the current pace and scale of action is far from sufficient.
“If we want an equitable and sustainable future that limits global warming and addresses its ongoing impacts, the ambitions for climate action need to be increased significantly and the implementation of climate mitigation and adaptation measures needs to be deeper and more sustained across all sectors and systems and across all world regions. These measures need to be transformative and equitable to ensure the most effective societal response, including not only technological advances and broader deployment of best practices, but also behavioural changes and institutional reforms,” said Francis X. Johnson, Senior Research Fellow at Stockholm Environment Institute and member of the extended writing team.
The IPCC states that there are “multiple, feasible and effective options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change”, available now. The report brings into focus the impacts the world is already experiencing and how these are hitting the most vulnerable people and ecosystems, now and in the future. Accelerated action to both mitigate and adapt to climate change is therefore critical in the coming years. Emissions of greenhouse gases should be decreasing by now and will need to be cut by almost half by 2030, according to the IPCC report. “Climate resilient development” offers an integrated framing for climate action – coordinating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid emissions.
“Climate resilient development also aims to promote equity and climate justice by strengthening institutions and governance and ensuring the necessary financing, technology, innovation and capacity development. International cooperation, technology transfer, and transnational learning are also needed to support the scaling up and replication of best practices and efficient technologies, which are particularly important in developing countries that bear the least responsibility for climate change but face some of the most serious consequences,” said Francis X. Johnson.
SEI researchers
SEI researchers have contributed to several of the IPCC reports during the sixth assessment cycle. The following researchers are available for comment on their respective fields. Click on the links for contact details and more information about their research.
Bangkok, Thailand (In Europe 20-28 of March)
Francis X. Johnson, Senior Research Fellow. Member of extended writing team of the IPCC Synthesis Report
Bonn, Germany
Richard Klein, Senior Research Fellow
Expertise: science and policy of adaptation to climate change
Lisa Schipper, SEI Affiliated researcher, at the University of Bonn
Expertise: climate change adaptation, vulnerability and climate resilient development in the Global South.
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Zoha Shawoo, Associate Scientist
Expertise: SDGs, climate resilient development, loss and damage
Sivan Kartha, Senior Scientist
Expertise: mitigation, just transitions,equity and sustainable development
Stockholm, Sweden
Åsa Persson, Research Director
Expertise: environmental governance and policies, adaptation, SDGs
Henrik Carlsen, Senior Research Fellow
Expertise: decision-making under uncertainty, focus on adaptation
About the Synthesis Report
The Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) provides an overview of the state of knowledge on the science of climate change, emphasizing new results since the publication of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in 2014. It integrates the findings of the three Working Group assessments as well as the three Special Reports on Global Warming of 1.5°C, on Climate Change and Land, and on the Ocean and the Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.
For more information, please visit www.ipcc.ch.
For further information, contact:
Ulrika Lamberth, Senior Press Officer, Stockholm Environment Institute, + 46 73 801 70 53, ulrika.lamberth@sei.org
Stockholm Environment Institute is an international non-profit research and policy organization that tackles environment and development challenges. We connect science and decision-making to develop solutions for a sustainable future for all. Across our eight centres in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, we engage with policy processes, development action and business practice throughout the world. www.sei.org @SEIresearch @SEIclimate