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For those of you who are like me, concerned about climate change but not informed enough about it, for this week’s newsletter, I have put together some links that I think will get you up to speed. What got me started on a lot of reading on the topic was the buzz around the latest Assessment Report on climate change, released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in early August.
Some terms you should know
First, some information on the IPCC and its process. To quote its website, “the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.” Each Assessment Report consists of reports from each of three Working Groups plus a Synthesis Report (SYN). Working Group I (WGI) assesses the physical science of climate change. Working Group II (WGII) assesses the impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities related to climate change and Working Group III (WGIII) focuses on the mitigation of climate change. As this is the sixth cycle of the Assessment Report, and the report released is from WGI, it is known as AR6WGI or just AR6. The other two Working Group reports and the Synthesis Report will be finalised in 2022.
Second, you should know what COP is. The UN Climate Change Conference is also known as the Conference of Parties (COP). It meets every year and each COP is sequentially numbered. The next COP is the 26th meeting, i.e. COP26, and will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, in October of this year.
The story so far
At COP21 held in Paris in 2015, member countries adopted the global goal of limiting the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius when compared to pre-industrial levels. This is what is known as the Paris Agreement, and it has been ratified by 191 member countries.
Let’s now look at AR6 with the following information in mind:
November 2014: The complete AR5 is released.
December 2015: At COP21, the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius is finalised.
August 2021: AR6WGI is released.
October 2021: COP26 is to be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
You can see that this is the first report on the state of the planet with regard to climate change since the Paris Agreement set the limit of 1.5 degrees. So, how do you think we are doing?
The links to read
Here are links to the original reports as well as other links that summarise AR6WGI and inform you of its impact and implications.
The AR6WGI Report is 4000 pages long. It is condensed into a Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) which is 40 pages long.
Of special significance is the fact that the SPM must be approved by each member country, which in effect means that all member countries are aware of and more importantly, concur with, the contents of AR6.
An even shorter document is the two-pager called Headlines Statements from the SPM, which is a perfect at-a-glance look at the original report.
In my last newsletter, I stated that words have power. AR6 is a case in point. The Assessment Report is of special consequence in part because of the fresh approach adopted in the way the report is written. As soon as it was released, news reports amplified AR6’s use of the word ‘unequivocal’ to answer the question of human influence on climate change, something that previous Assessment Reports had not stated so unambiguously. The clear shift in the way AR6 is worded as compared to AR5 is explored in this interesting piece from Carbon Brief.
The website Quartz has done something very engaging. Their article has very brief chapter-wise summaries of AR6. It also has an interesting graphic where paragraphs of the executive summary of each chapter are colour-coded according to the level of confidence (certainty) about different findings.
Neelima Vallangi, a writer who focuses on climate change, does a great job in her newsletter Climate Matters to explain everything for lay people and presents her ten key takeaways on AR6. Please follow her on Twitter to read her informative writing.
For an India perspective on AR6’s findings, read Mongabay’s article that tells us what’s in store for India climate-wise in the coming years. And having read that, you may want to read an example of the situation on the ground.
Finally a request to all readers to check out the IPCC website. It is very well organised. In particular, take a look at the section called Regional Fact Sheets under the Full Report link. These eleven fact sheets provide what are called ‘high level key messages’ for each region of the globe. Here is the regional fact sheet for Asia.
I hope this newsletter helps you to now understand the latest climate change developments so that as global citizens, we can all play our part in talking about climate change. More importantly, I hope it ensures that we are informed enough to vote for elected representatives who make mitigating climate change a priority.
Keep your eyes and ears open for what happens next at COP26, Glasgow in October.
Until next time,
Michelle