In 2018, the IPCC highlighted the unprecedented scale of the challenge required to keep global warming to 1.5°C. However, five years later, ‘that challenge has become even greater due to a continued increase in GHG emissions and the pace and scale of what has been done so far’, says the new report. The world’s most authoritative panel on climate change warns that current plans are ‘insufficient to tackle climate change’, with global temperatures already 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels after 100 years of burning fossil fuels and likely to reach 2.8°C by 2100.

Commenting on the synthesis report to the BBC, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for leaders of developed countries to commit to reaching net zero as close as possible to 2040. He also suggested that countries such as China and India that have set net zero targets beyond 2050 try to bring them forward by at least a decade as well.

The report brings into sharp focus the losses and damages the world is already experiencing and will continue into the future, hitting the most vulnerable people and ecosystems especially hard. However, taking the right action now could result in the transformational change essential for a ‘sustainable, liveable future for all’, suggests IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee.

‘Climate justice is crucial because those who have contributed least to climate change are being disproportionately affected,’ adds Aditi Mukherji, one of the 93 authors of the report. ‘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,’ she adds.

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

Clear way ahead
The solution lies in ‘climate resilient development, integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid GHG emissions in ways that provide wider benefits’, says the IPCC. The report states that the adoption of low-carbon technologies, shifting consumption and demand patterns, societal behavioural changes and improved energy efficiency will be key to accelerating decarbonisation, noting that many solutions are already available and falling in cost, but stresses the adoption of these needs to progress more quickly and be informed by diverse values, world views and knowledges, including scientific information, and input from local and indigenous communities.

The IPCC believes there ‘is sufficient global capital to rapidly reduce GHG emissions if existing barriers are reduced’, but says that governments, through public funding and clear signals to investors, will be key to reducing these barriers, with investors, central banks and financial regulators also needing to play their part.