New IPCC report: living in a changed climate

Today, the leading international body of climate scientists released a report that tells us more about the changed (and changing) climate and what it means for life on Earth. While the contents are unsurprisingly bleak, I encourage you to read on - the window for action hasn't closed.

The report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today is the second part of the group's massive four-part Sixth Assessment Report. As the leading expert body examining climate change, the IPCC's reports serve to express scientific consensus and help direct the rest of society towards meaningful action. Today's report is not exactly a "sunny" picture, but it does point the way to important action that must be prioritized in the global movement for climate action.

Report summary: climate change is already here, and effects are ratcheting up

Climate change is no longer a distant prospect. Even as we make efforts to start addressing its human causes, the effects of a warmer planet are already in play. Terrestrial, freshwater and ocean ecosystems have been damaged at global scale, and human systems are experiencing a spectrum of adverse effects, including:

• Water insecurity: Roughly half of the world’s population currently experience severe water scarcity for at least some part of the year.

• Impaired food production and access: IIncreasing weather and climate extreme events have exposed millions of people to acute food insecurity...with the largest impacts observed in many locations and/or communities in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Small Islands and the Arctic.

• Poorer health and well-being: increases in extreme heat events, climate-related food-borne and water-borne diseases, and increased exposure to smoke and dust have all contributed to higher disease and death rates globally - and are exacerbated by interrupted access to healthcare services as a result of extreme climate events like storms and heat waves.

• Damage to cities, settlements and infrastructure

The report highlights that the people who are and will be most severely impacted by the effects of climate change are those with the fewest resources to adapt to these changes. Approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change - and because of their limited ability to react to climate events, this means that the likelihood of humanitarian disasters is also increasing. In our globalized world, these impacts aren't contained to certain countries or regions: "weather and climate extremes are causing economic and societal impacts across national boundaries through supply-chains, markets, and natural resource flows, with increasing transboundary risks projected across the water, energy and food sectors".

Adapting to the new abnormal

There are two approaches to addressing climate change. The first, mitigation, is the process of minimizing or eliminating sources of greenhouse gases. Migating actions might include switching to renewable energy, capping methane leaks, or increasing carbon "sinks" by replanting trees that absorb carbon dioxide from the air.

But mitigation efforts are not sufficient to address the level of warming in our atmosphere. The IPCC's report makes clear that we must put greater effort into the second kind of climate action: adapting our environment to help buffer it against the change that has already occurred. Adaptive actions might include nature-focused efforts like wetland and river restoration to help channel excess stormwater, and improved irrigation that makes efficient use of limited water. It can also take the shape of systems-focused solutions, like funding additional social safety nets for food security and poverty alleviation, or building early warning systems for storms.

Governments and cities have made some progress in adaptation planning, but the IPCC warns that it is insufficient to the risks of climate change: "Most observed adaptation is fragmented, small in scale, incremental, sector-specific, designed to respond to current impacts or near-term risks, and focused more on planning rather than implementation", the report says. Unsurprisingly, the ability of countries to implement adaptation measures is uneven, and the amount of financing allocated for adaptation falls far short of the projected costs. "The largest adaptation gaps exist among lower income population groups," notes the report, "[and ] at current rates of adaptation planning and implementation the adaptation gap will continue to grow."

Where to go from here?

No one in the world will be spared from feeling the impacts of climate change. In addition to direct effects like extreme weather, sea level rise, and infrastructure damage, without proper adaptation planning and execution we will also experience knock-on effects of supply chain gaps, food shortages, increased migration, and overtaxed public support systems.

But we can minimize the impacts of climate change if we prioritize action now. "The world’s best scientists have confirmed what it means to live in the era of climate change", said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program; "it means we need to build systemic resilience to the many consequences that are now unavoidable, while simultaneously strengthening strategies to reduce emissions as quickly as possible in a bid to prevent these impacts from getting any worse."

The IPCC reiterates that meeting the Paris Agreement's mitigation target of 1.5°C is critical to avert the worst effects of climate change (the world is currently on track for ~2.7°C of warming by 2050). Aliging existing mitigation efforts to this target is critical to avoid the worst-case scenario: "additional warming [beyond this target] will result in irreversible impacts on certain ecosystems with low resilience".

In addition, adaptation efforts must be better funded, broader in scope, and cross-cutting in design. "There are feasible and effective adaptation options which can reduce risks to people and nature," the report says. "Integrated, multi-sectoral solutions that address social inequities, differentiate responses based on climate risk, and cut across systems increase the feasibility and effectiveness of adaptation in multiple sectors." Urban greening efforts, advanced agriculture methods, large-scale preservation of land, freshwater and ocean areas and other adaptaion efforts will all need adequate funding and priority in order to support climate resilient development.

To prioritize this action, we in the U.S. must look to Congress. And Congress will soon be called on the carpet to act, thanks to a lawsuit that has wended its way to the Supreme Court this week.

But we'll cover that story tomorrow.

Cover image credit: Josh Edelson Getty Images