Climate Change

Climate action: Meet to approve IPCC Synthesis Report begins in Switzerland

Synthesis Report last of the Sixth Assessment reports; first IPCC assessment since Paris Agreement 

 
By Rohini Krishnamurthy
Published: Monday 13 March 2023
IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee at the opening of the Conference on March 13, 2023. Photo: @IPCC_CH / Twitter_

A crucial global meeting to approve the Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has begun in Switzerland from March 13 and will end March 17, 2023. The report provides an overview of the state of knowledge on the science of climate change. 

The Synthesis Report is the last of the Sixth Assessment reports and will summarise three special and three Working Groups’ papers. The IPCC is now in its sixth assessment cycle. The Fifth Assessment Report was completed in 2014. 

Working Group I deals with the physical science basis of climate change, Working Group II includes impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and Working Group III talks about climate change mitigation.


Read more: Clear signs: 1.5°C warmer world to be catastrophic for India


“Once approved, the Synthesis Report will become a fundamental policy document for shaping climate action in the remainder of this pivotal decade,” Hoesung Lee, the IPCC Chair, said during the conference’s opening.

This, he added, will be a much-needed textbook for addressing climate change. “Make no mistake, inaction and delays are not listed as options,” he added.

“This will be the first comprehensive IPCC report in nine years — and the first since the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. It could not come at a more pivotal time,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said at the opening ceremony.

In 2021, the IPCC concluded for the first time that some of the changes to Earth’s oceans, ice and land surface were irreversible, said Guterres.

And that these changes were “unequivocally” caused by human activity, overwhelmingly due to burning fossil fuels and creating unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases.

In 2022, IPCC showed that “nearly half the global population lives in the danger zone of climate impacts,” he said, adding that scaling up investments in adaptation is the need of the hour.


Read more: NDC compliance not enough, world may still be 2.5°C warmer by 2100: Study


The IPCC reports also highlight the big uncertainties in sinks and sources of carbon from the biosphere, forests and farmlands, said Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation. 

We don’t fully understand the reasons for the methane concentration increase. Global methane emissions reached roughly 15 parts per billion (ppb) in 2020 from 9.9 ppb in 2019, the study published in the journal Nature noted.

Methane levels in the atmosphere in 2021 reached a record high of 1908 parts per billion. This is 262 per cent of the preindustrial era levels, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

The report will guide the global stocktake at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to bring the world in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. 

The global stocktake enables countries and other stakeholders to assess progress toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. It is a two-year process, which began at COP26 in Glasgow and will culminate in 2023 at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates.

“The IPCC’s input on this final step of the world’s collective progress towards achieving the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement will set the tone for action in the second half of this critical decade,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 

Andersen reminded nations of the enormous consequences of delay.

Tough but essential choices can accelerate the phasing out of fossil fuels and close the emissions gap, Guterres said. 


Read more: IPCC’s missing pathways to real climate solutions


It could also secure climate justice, helping communities adapt and build resilience to climate change’s impacts, Guterres added. “I count on the IPCC to do what you have always done — point the way to a solution,” Guterres noted.

The reports, Lee said, show that humanity has the know-how and the technology to tackle human-induced climate change. Further, the reports show humans can build a much more prosperous, inclusive and equitable society in this process, he added.

“We need more action from governments, businesses and investors — indeed everyone,” Andersen stressed.

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