About

• • Highlighting the need for urgent climate action, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its Synthesis Report for the Sixth Assessment Cycle.

• IPCC is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.

• It was created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

• Aim: To provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. It provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of Climate change, its impacts and future risks and options for adaptation and mitigation.

• The IPCC is now in its sixth assessment cycle. The Fifth Assessment Report was completed in 2014.
• The Synthesis Report is the last of the Sixth Assessment reports and it is essentially a summary of the previous reports, which were released between 2018 and 2022.

What does the report say?

• The report highlights that the world is on track to breach the 1.5°C global warming limit by the 2030s, which would cause irrevocable damage to the planet’s ecosystem and severely impact humans and other living beings
• Despite the IPCC’s warnings in 2018, the increase in greenhouse gas emissions continued so much so that the global surface temperature has already warmed by 1.1°C over pre-industrial levels, leading to extreme and/or unpredictable weather events that are risking human health, fortunes, and ecosystems.
• Such events have made people much more susceptible to food insecurity, water shortages with vulnerable populations disproportionately facing the brunt of climate change. 

What is the way ahead?

• The report suggests climate resilient development that will not only mitigate the effects of climate change but also provide wider benefits.
• Access to clean energy, improving air quality, boosting healthcare through technology, and delivering equity are among the report’s recommended goals to help adapt to climate change.
• The report also foregrounded the role of financial investments to achieve climate goals and encouraged public funding through central banks, government and financial regulators to reduce emissions, scale up climate resilience, and protect low-income and marginalised communities.

What are the implications for India?

• With a large vulnerable population, India needs to prioritise grants and policies that focusses on adapting to the effects of climate change.
• India’s priority should be to minimise loss and damage in terms of lives, livelihood and biodiversity, and accelerate equitable action mitigation and adaptation.

Why in News?

• Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav said the IPCC AR 6 Report reemphasises that development is our first defence against climate change. 
• The Report reinforces the scientific view that CO2 is the primary GHG that needs to be drastically reduced to achieve the global temperature goal as agreed in the Paris Agreement. 

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1916757