IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report
What’s the news?
- The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned of multiple climate change-induced disasters in the next two decades even if strong action is taken to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gas emissions.
- The latest warnings have come in the second part of IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report which talks about “Climate change impacts, risks and vulnerabilities, and adaptation options”. The first part of the report, released in August last year was centered around the scientific basis of climate change.
What’s new?
- The Assessment Reports, the first of which had come out in 1990, are the most comprehensive evaluations of the state of the earth’s climate.
- The four subsequent assessment reports came out in 1995, 2001, 2007 and 2015 and have formed the basis of the global response to climate change.
- The latest report has, for the first time, made an assessment of regional and sectoral impacts of climate change.
- It has included risks to, and vulnerabilities of, mega-cities around the world.Eg: It has highlighted that Mumbai is at high risk of sea-level rise and flooding, while Ahmedabad faces serious danger of heat-waves.
- Also for the first time, the IPCC report has looked at the health impacts of climate change.
- Eg: It has been found that climate change is increasing vector-borne and water-borne diseases such as malaria or dengue, particularly in sub-tropical regions of Asia.
Key Findings
- Human-induced climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme events, has caused widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people, beyond natural climate variability.
- The report has highlighted that while strong actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the near term, in the next 20 years, would substantially reduce the threats, and the projected damages, they would not eliminate them all. If the temperature rise crossed the threshold of 1.5°C from pre-industrial times, then many changes could be irreversible.
- While progress in adaptation planning and implementation has been observed across all sectors and regions, generating multiple benefits, it was unevenly distributed with observed “adaptation gaps” as many initiatives prioritize immediate and near-term climate risk reduction which reduces the opportunity for transformational adaptation.
- Global sea levels will likely rise 44-76 cm this century if governments meet their current emission-cutting pledges.
- With faster emission cuts, the increase could be limited to 28-55 cm. But with higher emissions, and if ice sheets collapse more quickly than expected, sea levels could rise as much as 2 m this century and 5 m by 2150.
- Adaptation is essential to reduce harm, but if it is to be effective, it must go hand in hand with ambitious reductions in greenhouse gas emissions because with increased warming, the effectiveness of many adaptation options declines.
3 Major impacts of Climate Change stressed in the report
- Accelerating climate crisis is increasing water-related diseases.
- Climate change will severely impact food production and food security.
- Droughts and heatwaves will trigger biodiversity loss, as well as human migration.
Regional Analysis
- According to one of several studies of the report, Lucknow and Patna are among the cities predicted to reach wet-bulb temperatures (a metric of humidity) of 35°C if emissions continued to rise, while Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Mumbai, Indore, and Ahmedabad are all identified as at risk of reaching wet-bulb temperatures of 32-34°C with continued emissions.
- Overall, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab will be the most severely affected, but if emissions continue to increase, all Indian States will have regions that experience wet-bulb 30°C or more by the end of the century.
- Even the slightest change in climate will have a long-lasting impact on the Himalayan region due to its fragile ecology.
- Eg: There would be a rapid increase in incidents like the Chamoli disaster and extreme weather events like heavy precipitation.
World Poverty to Rise
- The Climate Experts have warned that Climate change and extreme weather are already hurting the world economy and if unchecked will plunge millions more into poverty while pushing up food prices and disrupting trade and labour markets
- The report summarizes that Economic damages from climate change have been detected in climate-exposed sectors, with regional effects to agriculture, forestry, fishery, energy and tourism and through outdoor labour productivity.
- Eg: Under what it called a “high vulnerability-high warming scenario”, it estimated that up to 183 million additional people would become undernourished in low-income countries due to climate change by 2050.
- The report comes amid rising world fuel prices and inflation that have prompted some politicians to resist efforts to promote cleaner energy sources, arguing that doing so will only add to the overall cost of living for the poorest.
- It stressed that Rising temperatures would make agricultural labour less productive, or prompt farm workers to shift to other sectors which would cause negative consequences such as reduced food production and higher food prices and in turn lead to increased poverty, economic inequalities and involuntary migration to cities.
Conclusion
- The report in particular highlighted that more investment was urgently needed to help the world deal with the growing impact of climate change, known as “adaptation” in climate finance jargon.
- Thus, to combat this surge of crises, developing countries like India will need to significantly scale up their adaptive capacity.
References:
- https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ipcc-report-warns-of-unavoidable-multiple-climate-hazards/article65092570.ece
- https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/intergovernmental-panel-on-climate-change-report-global-warming-7795268/
- https://www.hindustantimes.com/environment/world-poverty-to-rise-as-climate-change-hits-food-supplies-says-un-panel-101646063018526.html
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