The Working Group from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from the United Nations invited TiME · This Is My Earth as a guest organization at the press conference where the 6TH ASSESSMENT REPORT – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability was presented. On 27 February 2022, this international Working Group from the United Nations finalized the second part of the Sixth Assessment Report and presented its conclusions in a global press conference after having aproved them by 195 member governments of the IPCC.
The main ideas behind this 6TH ASSESSMENT REPORT were described behind the title “Climate change: a threat to human wellbeing and health of the planet. Taking action now can secure our future“, and they are a pledge to avoid mounting loss of life, biodiversity and to speed up adaptation before climate change, as it has been uneven and there are “increasing gaps between action taken and what is needed to deal with the increasing risks”.
“People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit”, said scientists. At the press conference where TiME was invited, the IPCC’s Chair Hoesung Lee stated that “This report is a dire warning about the consequences of inaction, it shows that climate change is a grave and mounting threat to our wellbeing and a healthy planet. Our actions today will shape how people adapt and nature responds to increasing climate risks.”
The world faces unavoidable multiple climate hazards over the next two decades with global warming of 1.5°C (2.7°F). Even temporarily exceeding this warming level will result in additional severe impacts, some of which will be irreversible. Risks for society will increase, including to infrastructure and low-lying coastal settlements.
Urgent action is required to deal with increasing risks Increased heatwaves, droughts, and floods are already exceeding plants’ and animals’ tolerance thresholds, driving mass mortalities in species such as trees and corals. These weather extremes are occurring simultaneously, causing cascading impacts that are increasingly difficult to manage. They have exposed millions of people to acute food and water insecurity. Among the more exposed areas, there are countless #biodivesity hotspots in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, on Small Islands and in the Arctic.
The current report emphasizes the urgency of immediate and more ambitious action. Half measures are no longer an option. The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.
World areas described ony by one
Among the interesting issues described in the IPCC report is a detailed description, continent by continent, of the consequences that climate change is already having, as well as an assessment of the changes and adaptations that are to come. This is the first time that the IPCC has so prominently highlighted the importance of biodiversity and planetary health.
These last weeks at TiME · This is My Earth we have been unraveling and summarizing the main scientific conclusions of the report in our social media.
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