IPCC Assessment Report

IPCC Assessment Report

Subject: Environment

Context: The Geneva-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will release the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report, the periodic status check that has now become the most widely accepted scientific view of the state of the Earth’s climate.

About the Sixth Report:

• This part of the report will present the latest scientific understanding of the climate system, how and why it is changing, and the impact of human activities on this process.
• REGIONAL FOCUS: The Sixth Assessment Report will put much more emphasis on regional assessment.
• EXTREME EVENTS: In the last few years, there has been significant advancement in attribution science, allowing scientists to say whether a particular event was a result of climate change. Attribution science is likely to get important space in the report.
• CITIES: The Sixth Assessment Report is expected to present specific scenarios the climate change impacts on cities and large urban populations, and also implications for key infrastructure.
• SYNERGIES: IPCC is expected to present a more integrated understanding of the situation, cross-link evidence and discuss trade-offs between different options or pathways, and also likely to cover social implications of climate change action by countries.

Previous Assessment Reports:

• The five previous assessment reports that have come out since the IPCC was established in 1988 have formed the basis of international climate change negotiations.   and the actions that governments across the world have been taking in the last three decades to restrict the rise of global temperatures.
• The First Assessment Report led to the setting up of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• The Second Assessment Report was the basis for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
• The second and third parts of the report, dealing with the expected impacts of climate change, and the actions required to prevent the worst impacts, are slated to come out next year.
• The fourth assessment report, which came out in 2007, won the IPCC the Nobel Peace Prize.
• The Fifth Assessment Report, which came out in 2014, guided the Paris Agreement.
• In the immediate future, the IPCC report could serve as the most important warning towards the rapidly closing window of opportunity to halt the rise in temperatures to unacceptable levels, and propel the governments to take more urgent actions.

About Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the international body for assessing the science related to climate change.
• It was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.
• The IPCC does not conduct its own research.
• IPCC reports are neutral, policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive.