A 5-minute redux of the recent IPCC report

by Guest Blogger

March 31, 2014

Representatives from international civil society groups Friends of the Earth GCCA, Greenpeace, Oxfam and WWF, plus Japanese groups Kiko Network and CASA, call for world leaders to take action against climate change. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was meeting in Yokohama to finalise the second part of its Fifth Assessment Report, Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. A banner is displayed reading "#ClimateAction Saves Lives.... Your Call."

© Jeremie Souteyrat / Greenpeace

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="620"] The world if we limit warming to 2 degrees vs. if we emit a lot more greenhouse gases.[/caption] The worlds leading climate scientists havedelivered their latest assessment on how climate change is affecting our planet and us, and whats ahead.

In more than 2,000 pages and 30 chapters, the report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) goes into a lot of the fine details from the impact on coffee beans and tourism to the possibility of civil war.

In case you don't want or have time to get into the nitty gritty of the IPCC report, here are some key quotes from the summary for policymakers:

1. Climate change is happening now,here, there, and everywhere


Observed impacts of climate change are widespread and substantial.

Many terrestrial, freshwater and marine species have shifted their geographic ranges, seasonal activities, migration patterns, and abundance, and species interactions in response to ongoing climate change (high confidence).

Based on many studies covering a broad range of regions and crops, negative impacts of climate change on crop yields have been more common than positive impacts (high confidence).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="620"] A map showing what impacts have been observed around the world and where.[/caption]

2. And its rapidly getting worse

Increased tree mortality and associated forest dieback is projected to occur in many regions over the 21st century, due to increased temperatures and drought (medium confidence). Forest dieback poses risks for carbon storage, biodiversity, wood production, water quality, amenity and economic activity.

Freshwater-related risks of climate change increase significantly with increasing greenhouse gas concentration (robust evidence, high agreement).

Due to climate change by the mid 21st century and beyond, global marine-species redistribution and marine-biodiversity reduction in sensitive regions will challenge the sustained provision of fisheries productivity and other ecosystem services (high confidence).

Increasing magnitudes of warming increase the likelihood of severe, pervasive, and challenging irreversible impacts.

3. Its not just polar bears, corals, and rainforests that are threatened its us

People, places, and ecosystems in poor and rich countries around the world are vulnerable and exposed to climate change, in different ways.

Impacts from recent climate-related extremes, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, cyclones, and wildfires reveal significant vulnerability and exposure of some ecosystems and many human systems to current climate variability (very high confidence).


The IPCC identifies eight key risks to humansrelated to climate change. Theseincludesea level rise, coastal flooding and storm surges, heat waves, drought and rain variability, inland flooding and water shortage, loss of marine and terrestrial ecosystems and their ecosystem services, and multiple interacting hazards. These in turn can disrupt food and water supply and lead to loss of homes, livelihoods, and cultures.

4. Climate change interacts with other problems were causing and struggling with


The progressive expansion of oxygen minimum zones and anoxic dead zones is projected to further constrain fish habitat. () Climate change adds to the threats of overfishing and other non-climatic stressors, this complicating marine management regimes (high confidence).


5. How bad it will get depends on how much more will we pollute

Projected scenarios RCP4.5, 6.0, and 8.5 assume we do too little, too late. This isthe result:

Within this century, magnitudes and rates of climate change associated with medium- to high-emission scenarios (RCP4.5, 6.0, and 8.5) pose high risk of abrupt and irreversible regional-scale change in the composition, structure, and function of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems (including wetlands) (medium confidence). Examples that would lead to substantial impact on climate are the boreal-tundra Arctic system (medium confidence) and the Amazon forest (low confidence). These regional-scale changes would lead to substantial additional climate change.

For medium- to high-emission scenarios (RCP4.5, 6.0 and 8.5) ocean acidification poses substantial risks to marine ecosystems, especially polar ecosystems and coral reefs, associated with impacts on the physiology, behavior, and population dynamics of individual species from phytoplankton to animals (medium to high confidence).

"Climate change over the 21st century is projected to reduce renewable surface water and groundwater resources significantly in most dry subtropical regions (robust evidence, high agreement), intensifying competition for water among sectors (limited evidence, medium agreement)."

The precise levels of climate change sufficient to trigger tipping points (thresholds for abrupt and irreversible change) remain uncertain, but the likelihood of risk associated with crossing tipping points in the earth system or interlinked human and natural systems increases with rising temperature (medium confidence).

6. And, well, it truly can get bad, threatening our security and fueling conflicts


Climate change can indirectly increase risks of violent conflicts in the form of civil war and inter-group violence by amplifying well-documented drivers of these conflicts such as poverty and economic shocks (medium confidence). Multiple lines of evidence relate climate variability to these forms of conflict.

The impacts of climate change on the critical infrastructure and territorial integrity of many states are expected to influence national security policies (medium evidence, medium agreement). For example, land inundation due to sea-level rise poses risks to the territorial integrity of small-island states and states with extensive coastlines. Some transboundary impacts of climate change, such as changes in sea ice, shared water resources, and pelagic fish stocks, have the potential to increase rivalry among states, but robust national and intergovernmental institutions can enhance cooperation and manage many of these rivalries.

7. But with faster cuts on climate pollution, risks can be reduced substantially

The RCP2.6 scenario assumes we cut emissions enough to limit warming to less than 2 degrees C, which is the goal governments have agreed to in the UN climate talks:

"The overall risks of climate change impacts can be reduced by limiting the rate and magnitude of climate change. Risks are reduced substantially under the assessed scenario with lowest temperature projections (RCP2.6 low emissions) compared to the highest temperatures projections (RCP8.5 high emissions), particularly in the second half of the 21st century (very high confidence)."

Climate-related risks are much greater with continued high emissions than with ambitious mitigation. Unchecked emissions increase the likelihood of severe and pervasive impact that may be irreversible or unanticipated.

Mitigation and adaptation choices in the near-term will affect the risks of climate change throughout the 21st century (high confidence).

8. And we will need to adapt too

For the major crops (wheat, rice, and maize) in tropical and temperate regions, climate change without adaptation is projected to negatively impact production for local temperature increases of 2C or more above late-20th-century levels, although individual locations may benefit (medium confidence).

Effective and inclusive climate-change adaptation can help build richer, more resilient world in the near-term and beyond.

A first step towards adaptation to future climate change can be reducing vulnerability and exposure to present climate variability (high confidence).

9. But we cant count on adaptation alone

Prospects for climate-resilient pathways for sustainable development are related fundamentally to what the world accomplishes with climate-change mitigation (high confidence).

Greater rates and magnitude of climate change increase the likelihood of exceeding adaptation limits (high confidence). Limits to adaptation occur when adaptive actions to avoid intolerable risks for an actors objectives or for the needs of a system are not possible or are not currently available.

10. We should not count on simplistic economic models that cant capture the true costs of climate change




So what are we supposed to do about all of this? That is what the IPCC will discuss in its next report, which will be published on April the 13th. Stay tuned.

This post originally appeared on EnergyDesk's blog, which is an initiative of Greenpeace UK.

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