Context:

• IPCC will release the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report.
• This Geneva-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment reports gives the periodic status check that are most widely accepted scientific view of the state of the Earth’s climate.
• Its reports present the latest scientific understanding of the climate system, how and why is it changing, and the impact of human activities on this process.

 

The 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 actions taken by governments across the world.
• The fourth assessment report, which came out in 2007, won the IPCC the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

 Previous IPCC assessment reports: highlights

What will be new in the sixth IPCC Report?

• It is attempting to provide more actionable information to help governments take policy decisions.

 

REGIONAL FOCUS: Thus far, the IPCC assessment reports have been presenting global scenarios. The Sixth Assessment Report will put much more emphasis on regional assessment. It would likely state what the scenarios for sea-level rise in the Bay of Bengal region.

 

EXTREME EVENTS: There is expected to be bigger focus on extreme weather events. Linking individual extreme events to climate change has always been debatable. Attribution science is likely to get important space in the report.

 

CITIES: Densely populated mega-cities are supposed to be among the most vulnerable to impacts of climate change. 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.

 

Why these reports matters?

• The IPCC assessment reports have been extremely influential in directing the dialogue and action on climate change.
• The First Assessment Report led to the setting up of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the umbrella agreement under which international negotiations on climate change take place every year.
• The Second Assessment Report was the basis for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
• The Fifth Assessment Report of 2014, guided the Paris Agreement.
• The IPCC report 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.

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