On 9 August 2021, the Intrgovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its Sixth Assessment Report on climate change. The last such report was issued in 2013.
The report was not simply a wake up call. Trends had been pointing to ever-increasing concern for some time; but few perople anticipated the extent of change. After reviewing the finings of the report, the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, referred to the report as a 'code red for humanity."1
The Who and What of the Report
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) was created by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988.. The IPCC has 195 member countries. Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, IPCC scientists volunteer their time to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
The thirteen chapters of the report "provide an assessment of the current evidence on the physical science of climate change, knowledge evaluation gained from observations, reanalyses, paleoclimate archives and climate model simulations, as well as physical, chemical and biological climate processes." Findings follow:
A. The Current State of the Climate
A.1 It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.
Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.
A.2 The scale of recent changes across the climate system as a whole and the present state of many aspects of the climate system are unprecedented over many centuries to many thousands of years.
A.3 Human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. Evidence of observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones, and, in particular, their attribution to human influence, has strengthened since the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).
A.4 Improved knowledge of climate processes, paleoclimate evidence and the response of the climate system to increasing radiative forcing gives a best estimate of equilibrium climate sensitivity of 3°C, with a narrower range compared to AR5.
B. Possible Climate Futures
B.1 Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered. Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.
B.2 Many changes in the climate system become larger in direct relation to increasing global warming. They include increases in the frequency and intensity of hot extremes, marine
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'CODE RED' For Humanity:
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
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