The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), a body of experts convened by the UN, has published the Sixth Assessment Report on Climate Change providing a most detailed account on global warming.
The second part of the report was published this week, while the first was out in August 2021. This part of the report mainly focuses on adoptions and vulnerability towards climate change. The report does not provide new research but summarizes thousands of peer-reviewed papers written by 270 researchers from 67 countries and spans over 3,600 pages.
Overall, the report represents a strong warning that humans must act quickly and do more to combat climate change. It underscores that three billion people are exposed to severe climate change risks. It also states that climate change happens quicker than previously thought, and adverse effects are already being observed more widely and negatively than expected. Likewise, it stresses that the impact of climate change is so rapid that it could overwhelm the ability of humans and nature to adopt if not acted upon quickly enough. In that regard, the report claims that the current adaptations are only incremental and not sufficient. In fact, it claims that ‘transformational’ changes are needed. It also mentions that the time left to react passes quickly, so actions must follow as well. It further highlights how global warming endangers food security. According to the report, if global warming reaches 1.5°C, a substantial part of farmland will become unusable.
Read the full report here.
