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Crucial global meet begins with focus on IPCC findings
Representatives of 195 nations will meet in Interlaken in Switzerland starting Monday till March 19 to approve a synthesis report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scheduled to be released on March 20, a critical document on the state of climate crisis that will influence the outcome of UN Climate Conference in Dubai in December
Representatives of 195 nations will meet in Interlaken in Switzerland starting Monday till March 19 to approve a synthesis report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scheduled to be released on March 20, a critical document on the state of climate crisis that will influence the outcome of UN Climate Conference in Dubai in December.
The synthesis report by the world’s largest group of climate experts will feed into this year’s global stocktake, IPCC said in a statement. The global stocktake of the 2015 Paris climate pact is a process of taking stock of the implementation of the landmark agreement. The Paris Agreement seeks to keep global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.
The synthesis report will integrate the findings of the IPCC’s three working groups released in August 2021 and February and March 2022, and the three special reports released in 2018 and 2019. During the Interlaken meeting, a panel consisting of 195 IPCC member governments will conduct a line-by-line approval of the summary for policymakers and adopt the longer report section by section, the IPCC had said on November 25.
The report is expected to be the first comprehensive summary report of IPCC’s findings in the past nine years.
One of the key issues that the report may address is the impending possibility of overshooting the 1.5 degree threshold. In its March 2022 report titled “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”, the IPCC warned that at least half the world’s population lives in regions vulnerable to the climate crisis, with several interacting factors likely to increase food prices, reduce household incomes, and lead to malnutrition and climate-related deaths, especially in tropical regions.
In its April 2022 report titled “Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change”, the IPCC flagged that the amount of greenhouse gases like CO2 emitted by the world needs to peak by 2025, followed by a 43% reduction in the 10 years after to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees by the turn of the century. The IPCC had called for immediate action with a warning that policies implemented till the end of 2020 will add more emissions and lead to a rise of 3.2 degrees by 2100.
The report warned that average annual greenhouse gas emissions in the past decade were higher than any previous decade. Emissions between 2010-19 were around 12% and 54% higher than in 2010 and 1990, respectively, despite the IPCC warning that the time to limit dangerous global warming is running out.
“Fossil fuels are driving up greenhouse gas emissions and causing unprecedented levels of global heating. The forthcoming IPCC report will shine a harsh spotlight on the fossil fuel industry by laying out the scientific evidence - highlighting its role in the current climate crisis,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, a collective of climate non-profits.
“The question is: what will governments do with these facts?” asked Singh, who will attend the Interlaken meeting as an observer. “We demand a rapid and equitable phase out of all fossil fuels based on just transitions and scaling up finance for communities who are reaching the limits of adaptation and suffering the consequences of loss and damage,”
“It (sysnthesis report) doesn’t introduce any new information, but will draw out connections between the previous reports. Past experience shows this is likely to be influential. It will feed into the global stocktake being held this year under the Paris Agreement and will be considered at Dubai,” Jim Skea, IPCC co-chair of the working group III, had said in an interview to HT on February 8.
The synthesis report may have findings on historical responsibility of countries from the global south and north, Skea had said.
“The IPCC synthesis report builds on findings from the preceding working group reports. Working groups II (impacts) and III (mitigation) have shown that those countries most affected by climate change have contributed, and still contribute, far less to global warming,” he had said. “The southern Asia region has accounted for 4% of CO2 emissions since 1850, and currently has greenhouse gas emission of 2.6 tonnes CO2 equivalent per person, compared to a global average of 6.9 tonnes and 19 tonnes in North America. The governments that make up IPCC will ultimately decide whether and how to present these facts when they meet in March.”
