Matrix Report
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), working as the United Nations’ climate-science-focused organization since 1988, published its Working Group I report, as the first instalment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which will be completed in 2022.
The report highlighted the existing state of global climate change and lays out a transformational action framework that states must undertake to avoid a calamitous future. The top five findings of the report are:
1) We’re on track to reach 1.5 degrees C of warming within the next two decades.
The report established that there is a more than 50% chance of the earth reaching the 1.5 degrees C target between 2021 and 2040. Under a high-emissions scenario, the world reaches the 1.5 degrees C threshold even more quickly (2018-2037).
Simultaneously, the report shows that even with rigorous emissions-reduction measures, we won’t be able to halt the disastrous effects of climate change because we’ve already parched a lot of warming into the climate system. We are guaranteed to face more dangerous and destructive extreme weather events than we are seeing today, underscoring the need to invest much more in building resilience.
2) Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C by the end of the century is still achievable, but requires transformational change.
Another key finding of the report was that global warming can be limited, but only with sweeping transformational efforts collectively by the whole world. If the world takes very ambitious action to limit emissions in the 2020s, we will be able to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C by the end of the century. This means that small-scale efforts won’t be sufficient; we’ll need rapid, transformational change.
3) Our understanding of climate science is stronger than ever.
The report made it clear, that now when the scientists and climate experts have found out the causes and consequences of global warming and related phenomena, the world is the strongest in history, in terms of understanding of climate science.
4) The changes we are already seeing are unprecedented in recent history and will affect every region of the globe.
The effects of climate change are universal, and can be observed in all the regions of the world. The report illustrates that no region will be left unharmed by the impacts of climate change, with massive human and economic costs that far outweigh the costs of action. The report also specified areas where the effects will be harsher and more visible.
5) Every portion of a degree of warming leads to more hazardous and costly impacts.
Another significant finding of the report was that even a tiniest increase in the emissions and global carbon dioxide level can lead to equally drastic results. It doesn’t matter what level of positive change is brought in the statistics; the results can be catastrophic.
The report urged the governments to step up their action to be proportionate with the gauge of the crisis we are facing, because now the world stands at a tipping point, and if relevant action is not taken now, the world might face irreversible effects of climate change, which will cause great misfortune to the mankind and their atmosphere.
