Key takeaways from the UN report on the climate crisis
Mondays report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) represents the most comprehensive and conclusive state of the science on the climate crisis: why it is happening, how it is impacting every region of the planet, how much worse things are set to get and what must be done to avoid the worst consequences. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the report a code red for humanity, noting that global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible. The report is around 3,500 pages, represents years of research on the topic, was authored by more than 200 scientists from over 60 countries and cites more than 14,000 individual studies. Here are are some specific impacts and what the report has to say about them. IPCC reports, while long on science and exhaustive in scope and detail, contain precious little in suggesting policy to remedy the climate crisis. This report, for example, is purely the scientific facts and forecasts for the future. Major IPCC reports coming next year will go into more detail on specific impacts and ways to mitigate them, but before then global leaders will meet at a UN-led climate conference in November, in what is being billed as the most consequential climate policy meeting since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. As todays report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses, the UN secretary-general declared this morning, as he implored government leaders to ensure COP26 is a success in order to avert climate catastrophe.