29 Nov 22, Singapore
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Your Excellency Minister Balakrishnan, Director Pangestu, Ambassador Thomson, ladies and gentlemen,
First, I’d like to thank the organisers of this Summit for their kind invitation. As the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC – I’m honoured to address this keynote panel at the Economist Impact’s 2nd annual World Ocean Summit Asia-Pacific in Singapore.
Oceans cover more than 70 per cent of Earth’s surface and they have been one of the dominant themes in IPCC reports throughout this cycle.
What happens with our oceans will profoundly and inevitably influence what happens to our planet and how livable it will be in the not-so-distant future.
It is clear that man-made climate change is a threat to the health of our planet and to the wellbeing of all species inhabiting it.
The scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change has caused substantial damages, and increasingly irreversible losses, in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal and open ocean marine ecosystems.
The extent and magnitude of climate change impacts are larger than estimated in previous assessments. Widespread deterioration of ecosystem structure and function, resilience and natural adaptive capacity, as well as shifts in seasonal timing have occurred due to climate change, with adverse socioeconomic consequences.
Continued and accelerating sea level rise will encroach on coastal settlements and infrastructure and commit low-lying coastal ecosystems to submergence and loss. If trends in urbanisation in exposed areas continue, this will exacerbate the impacts, with more challenges where energy, water and other services are constrained. The number of people at risk from climate change and the associated loss of biodiversity will progressively increase.
Hundreds of local losses of species have been driven by increases in the magnitude of heat extremes, as well as mass mortality events on land and in the ocean and the loss of kelp forests.
Some losses are already irreversible, such as the first species extinctions driven by climate change. Other impacts are approaching irreversibility, such as the impacts of hydrological changes resulting from the retreat of glaciers, or the changes in some mountain and Arctic ecosystems driven by permafrost thaw.
Near-term warming and increased frequency, severity and duration of extreme events will place many terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems at high or very high risks of biodiversity loss. Near-term risks for biodiversity loss are moderate to high in forest ecosystems, kelp and seagrass ecosystems, and high to very high in Arctic sea-ice and terrestrial ecosystems and warm-water coral reefs.
Climate change causes the redistribution of marine fish stocks, increasing risk of transboundary management conflicts among fisheries users, and negatively affecting equitable distribution of food provisioning services as fish stocks shift from lower to higher latitude regions, thereby increasing the need for climate-informed transboundary management and cooperation.
Marine heatwaves, including well-documented events along the west coast of North America (2013–2016) and the east coast of Australia (2015– 2016, 2016–2017 and 2020), drive abrupt shifts in community composition that may persist for years, with associated biodiversity loss, the collapse of regional fisheries and aquaculture and reduced capacity of habitat-forming species to protect shorelines.
Some habitat-forming coastal ecosystems, including many coral reefs, kelp forests and seagrass meadows, will undergo irreversible phase shifts due to marine heatwaves with global warming levels above 1.5°C and are at high risk this century.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Maintaining planetary health is essential for human and societal health and a pre-condition for climate-resilient development.
In light of observed and projected changes in the ocean and cryosphere, many nations will face challenges to adapt, even with ambitious mitigation. In a high emissions scenario, many ocean- and cryosphere-dependent communities are projected to face adaptation limits (e.g. biophysical, geographical, financial, technical, social, political and institutional) during the second half of the 21st century. Low emission pathways, for comparison, limit the risks from ocean and cryosphere changes in this century and beyond and enable more effective responses, whilst also creating co-benefits.
Profound economic and institutional transformative change will enable Climate Resilient Development Pathways in the ocean and cryosphere context.
Effective ecosystem conservation on approximately 30% to 50% of Earth’s land, freshwater and ocean areas, including all remaining areas with a high degree of naturalness and ecosystem integrity, will help protect biodiversity, build ecosystem resilience and ensure essential ecosystem services.
IPCC assessment of the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate reveals the benefits of ambitious mitigation and effective adaptation for sustainable development and, conversely, the escalating costs and risks of delayed action. The potential to chart Climate Resilient Development Pathways varies within and among ocean, high mountain and polar land regions. Realising this potential depends on transformative change.
This highlights the urgency of prioritising timely, ambitious, coordinated and enduring action.
Thank you.
GENEVA, Nov 25 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has circulated the final draft of the Summary for Policymakers and a longer report of the Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report to governments for review and comments. The Final Government Distribution, running from 21 November 2022 to 15 January 2023 is the last phase of preparations before the Panel’s plenary approval of this final installment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, scheduled for March 2023.
The Synthesis Report integrates the findings of the three Working Group contributions released respectively in August 2021, and then in February and April 2022, and the three Special Reports released in 2018 and 2019. It will provide policymakers with a high-level, up-to-date understanding of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for addressing it. The Synthesis Report will feed into the next year’s Global Stocktake – a fundamental component of the Paris Agreement monitoring its implementation and evaluating collective progress towards the agreed goals.
“With climate change fast bearing down on humanity, the Synthesis Report will underscore the urgency of taking more ambitious action,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee.
“It will also provide world governments with a robust list of options to improve ways to adapt to and prevent climate change. It will be up to each government to determine which options to pursue, but the Synthesis Report will make it very clear that inaction is no longer an option.”
Governments are scheduled to meet and consider the Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report during their next plenary from 13 to 17 March 2023 in Interlaken, Switzerland. During that meeting, the Panel consisting of 195 IPCC member governments will conduct a line by line approval of the Summary for Policymakers and adopt the longer report section by section.
For more information please contact:
IPCC Synthesis Report Technical Support Unit,
Lance Ignon, ignon@ipcc-syr.org
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516 or Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120
Notes for Editors
About the IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, experts volunteer their time as IPCC authors to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group II, dealing with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and Working Group III, dealing with the mitigation of climate change. It also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for measuring emissions and removals.
IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency.
About the Sixth Assessment Cycle
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years; the latest, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014 and provided the main scientific input to the Paris Agreement.
At its 41st Session in February 2015, the IPCC decided to produce a Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). At its 42nd Session in October 2015 it elected a new Bureau that would oversee the work on this report and Special Reports to be produced in the assessment cycle. At its 43rd Session in April 2016, it decided to produce three Special Reports, a Methodology Report and AR6.
The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021. The Working Group II contribution, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, was released on 28 February 2022. The Working Group III contribution, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, was released on 4 April 2022.
The IPCC is currently working on the final installment of the Sixth Assessment Report, the Synthesis Report, which will integrate the findings of the three Working Group assessments as well as the three Special Reports released in 2018 and 2019. It is scheduled to be released in March 2023.
Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty was launched in October 2018.
Climate Change and Land, an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems was launched in August 2019, and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate was released in September 2019.
In May 2019 the IPCC released the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, an update to the methodology used by governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.
The website includes outreach materials including videos about the IPCC and video recordings from outreach events conducted as webinars or live-streamed events.
Most videos published by the IPCC can be found on our YouTube channel.
GENEVA, Nov 16 – The Summary for Policymakers of Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, the Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, is now available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. The Summary for Policymakers in the UN Official languages can be accessed on the report website here.
This follows the recent update of the report website to an HTML version making the online version more interactive and accessible. The HTML version features new interactive design elements that make it easier to navigate the more than one million words and 12 chapters of the report, the Atlas and the Interactive Atlas. This version also provides all the final figures of the report which are now also searchable.
The addition of the other UN official language versions of the Summary for Policymakers aim to make the main findings of the report more accessible to Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish-speaking policymakers and other stakeholders.
The Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report has been available online in PDF format since August 2021 when it was released. This report stated, unequivocally that man-made climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying.
For more information contact:
IPCC Working Group I Technical Support Unit, tsu@ipcc-wg1.fr
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516 or Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120
About the IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, experts volunteer their time as IPCC authors to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group II, dealing with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and Working Group III, dealing with the mitigation of climate change. It also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for measuring emissions and removals.
IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency.
About the Sixth Assessment Cycle
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years; the latest, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014 and provided the main scientific input to the Paris Agreement.
At its 41st Session in February 2015, the IPCC decided to produce a Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). At its 42nd Session in October 2015 it elected a new Bureau that would oversee the work on this report and Special Reports to be produced in the assessment cycle. At its 43rd Session in April 2016, it decided to produce three Special Reports, a Methodology Report and AR6.
The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021. The Working Group II contribution, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, was released on 28 February 2022. The Working Group III contribution, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, was released on 4 April 2022.
The IPCC is currently working on the final installment of the Sixth Assessment Report, the Synthesis Report, which will integrate the findings of the three Working Group assessments as well as the three Special Reports released in 2018 and 2019. It is scheduled to be released in March 2023.
Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty was launched in October 2018.
Climate Change and Land, an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems was launched in August 2019, and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate was released in September 2019.
In May 2019 the IPCC released the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, an update to the methodology used by governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.
The website includes outreach materials including videos about the IPCC and video recordings from outreach events conducted as webinars or live-streamed events. Most videos published by the IPCC can be found on our YouTube channel.
Sharm-El-Sheikh, Sunday 06 November 2022
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Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC – I’m delighted and honoured to address you at the opening of COP27.
We are very grateful to the Egyptian government and the presidency of COP27 for hosting this crucial conference. We also want to extend our thanks to the people of Sharm-El-Sheikh for their warmest welcome and generous hospitality. Thank you.
The voice of today´s science on climate change could not be sharper, stronger, and more sobering: we are not on track today to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The time for our collective action is – now.
IPCC reports presented to the world in February and April this year clearly show that we have the technology and the know-how to tackle climate change.
But these options are limited by the availability of finance among others. Adaptation options are further limited by global warming levels. With increasing global warming, losses and damages will increase and additional human and natural systems will be pushed to adaptation limits. Therefore, the prerequisite to successful adaptation is ambitious mitigation to keep global warming within limits, particularly below 1.5°C – through immediate and deep cuts in the emissions of greenhouse gases.
Progress on the financial flows comparable to the goals of the Paris Agreement remains low.
Accelerated international financial cooperation is a critical enabler of low emission and just transition.
Adaptation gaps, especially in developing countries, are particularly driven by widening disparities between the costs of adaptation and financing available to adaptation.
We can achieve the greatest gains in well-being by prioritizing finance to reduce climate risks for low-income and marginalized communities.
Since the Paris Agreement, many countries have put in place climate laws, climate policies, and regulations. But their scope needs to be expanded, their ambition raised and implemented.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to save our planet and our livelihoods.
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished delegates, this is an opportunity as well as an obligation.
The range of options and, most of all, the time available to them now will not be there for future leaders and policymakers.
Before closing, allow me to reassure you that the scientific community remains ready to work with you and support you in every step of the way in this journey to limit global warming and also of achieving sustainable development.
Humanity, our planet, and all species living on it deserve nothing less.
Thank you very much.
*****
GENEVA, Nov 2 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will have a strong footprint during the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt from 6 to 18 November 2022.
The IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee, will address the opening ceremony of COP27 on 6 November.
The IPCC has been invited to provide scientific input to several key UNFCCC official events. On 8 November, IPCC’s Working Group II will be delivering its findings relevant to assessing adaptation needs. On the same day, IPCC’s Working Groups II and III will present the gender-related aspects of climate change as they are reflected in their contributions to the Sixth Assessment Report at a special event of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). The opening of the SBSTA meeting will be addressed by IPCC Secretary Abdalah Mokssit.
Scientists from IPCC’s Working Groups I, II, and the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories will be taking part in the Earth Information Day scheduled for Wednesday 9 November.IPCC experts will also be contributing to a series of roundtables and poster sessions of the second Global Stocktake Technical Dialogue scheduled from 7 to 11 November.
IPCC Working Group III Co-Chairs are scheduled to present findings from the Sixth Assessment Report relevant to the urgency of enhanced ambition and accelerated implementation to inform the discussions of a mandated high-level ministerial roundtable on pre-2030 Ambition that is scheduled for 14 November.
Together with the Secretariat of the UNFCCC, the IPCC Taskforce on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories will launch the new generation of IPCC Inventory Software at an official side event on 9 November.
The IPCC will also play a major convening role in a UNFCCC side event on 11 November with several partners focused on a summary of the specific findings of the Sixth Assessment Report relevant for urban policymakers worldwide.
Together with the World Meteorological Organization and other partners, the IPCC will also run a pavilion named “Science for Climate Action” (#Science4ClimateAction) with a rich program of scientific panels and events. These live-streamed hybrid events will mainly address the key findings of the two major IPCC reports released since the last COP; the Working Group II report on vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation released in February, and the Working Group III report on the mitigation of climate change released in April. Detailed information about the overall IPCC activities at COP27 can be found here.
To request an interview with the IPCC Chair, Vice-Chairs, Co-Chairs, or other IPCC authors present at COP27 please email ipcc-media@wmo.int.
For more information please contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516 or Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120
Notes for Editors
About the IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, experts volunteer their time as IPCC authors to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group II, dealing with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and Working Group III, dealing with the mitigation of climate change. It also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for measuring emissions and removals.
IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency.
About the Sixth Assessment Cycle
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years; the latest, the Fifth Assessment Report, was completed in 2014 and provided the main scientific input to the Paris Agreement.
At its 41st Session in February 2015, the IPCC decided to produce a Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). At its 42nd Session in October 2015 it elected a new Bureau that would oversee the work on this report and Special Reports to be produced in the assessment cycle. At its 43rd Session in April 2016, it decided to produce three Special Reports, a Methodology Report and AR6.
The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021. The Working Group II contribution, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, was released on 28 February 2022. The Working Group III contribution, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, was released on 4 April 2022.
The IPCC is currently working on the final installment of the Sixth Assessment Report, the Synthesis Report, which will integrate the findings of the three Working Group assessments as well as the three Special Reports released in 2018 and 2019. It is scheduled to be released in March 2023.
Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty was launched in October 2018.
Climate Change and Land, an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems was launched in August 2019, and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate was released in September 2019.
In May 2019 the IPCC released the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, an update to the methodology used by governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.
The website includes outreach materials including videos about the IPCC and video recordings from outreach events conducted as webinars or live-streamed events.
Most videos published by the IPCC can be found on our YouTube channel.
GENEVA, SANTIAGO DE CHILE, Oct 28 – The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and MERI Foundation, part of the philanthropic group, Philanthropy Cortés Solari, announced today the running of a joint “Science for Climate Action” pavilion at the next month’s COP27 in Egypt.
Featuring the latest knowledge about climate change, the pavilion aims to deliver the science at the heart of the international talks, decision-making and climate action.
Under the slogan “Connected”, the pavilion will focus on the impact of human activities on communities, economies and ecosystems, in order to move towards concrete mitigation and adaptation actions.
“The message from the scientific community is very clear. The impacts of climate change are already very visible and will get worse. COP27 must accelerate the ambition levels on climate change mitigation and adaptation”, said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas adding that, “WMO will inform negotiations at COP27 with the latest science on greenhouse gas concentrations and the state of the climate, as well as updates on climate observations, monitoring and research. WMO will unveil an action plan to achieve Early Warnings for All, and initiatives to boost resilience.”
“The time for climate action is now. Science is critical in shaping the policies and actions to tackle the global climate change challenge,” said Chair of the IPCC Hoesung Lee.
“IPCC´s events at the ´Science for Climate Action´ pavilion during the COP27 will put robust climate change science at the front and center for the world´s policymakers”.
Francisca Cortés Solari, Executive President MERI Foundation said: “Science is the only tool we have to move towards effective mitigation and adaptation measures, which allow us to face Climate Change and avoid our own extinction. Achieving reversal of this situation, and complying with the announcements of the previous summits, requires a paradigm shift that calls broad wills and allows dialogues to strengthen collaboration between the public and private sectors, and civil society. We will only achieve sustainable solutions with the effort and presence of all parties,” explained.
From 6 to 18 November, the United Nations annual climate change conference, will be held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Under the motto “Together for Implementation” this year’s Conference of Parties (COP27) seeks to materialize the commitments, actions and agreements reached last year in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
The provisional program of the WMO/IPCC/MERI “Science for Climate Action” pavilion is available here.
The three organizations will stream their respective events live through the following pages:
WMO: wmo.int/cop27
IPCC: https://apps.ipcc.ch/outreach/viewevent.php?e=5
MERI Foundation: www.fcs.tv
For further information, please contact:
For WMO:
Clare Nullis +41797091397 cnullis@wmo.int.
For IPCC:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516 or Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120
For MERI Foundation:
Catalina Manzur +56 9 4508 3616 cmanzur@filantropiacortessolari.cl
Notes for Editors
WMO
WMO provides world leadership and expertise in international cooperation in the delivery and use of high-quality, authoritative weather, climate, hydrological and related environmental services by its Members, for the improvement of the well-being of societies of all nations.
IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the WMO in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
MERI Foundation
MERI Foundation is a private non-profit institution, part of Cortés Solari Philanthropy, created in 2012, whose mission is to develop scientific research, environmental education in linkage with communities, and advocacy, for the conservation of strategic ecosystems for climate change mitigation.
***
It is with profound sadness that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has learned of the death of former IPCC Vice-Chair, Professor Ogunlade Robert Davidson. Professor Davidson passed away on 8 October 2022 in Sierra Leone after a short illness.
He was involved with the IPCC in different capacities from 1993 including as one of the three IPCC Vice-Chairs from 2008 to 2014. He was also a Co-Chair of the IPCC’s Working Group III during the fourth assessment cycle.
A renowned scientist both nationally and internationally, Professor Davidson directed and taught at the Energy and Development Research Centre of South Africa’s University of Cape Town from 2000 to 2003. He served as Sierra Leone’s Minister of Water and Energy for two and a half years. From 1993 he was a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Sierra Leone where he had been since 1978. Davidson was involved with various international bodies including the African Academy of Sciences, the International Network of Engineers and Scientists. In 2003 he was Co-Chair of the steering committee of the Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development.
In his scientific career, Professor Davidson published over 300 publications including conference papers. His research interests include the development of African energy systems and policies, power sector reform and renewable energy policy. He was a senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley in USA in 1986 and a visiting Professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and Riso National Laboratory in Denmark.
Davidson obtained his Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering at the University of Sierra Leone in 1972; a Master of Science in thermo fluids from the University of Manchester in the UK in 1975; and a doctorate in heat transfer from the University of Salford in the UK in 1979.
Born on 26 May 1949, he is survived by his 7 children and 6 grandchildren.
The IPCC Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, is now available online in an interactive, easily accessible format.
The report has been available in PDF format since its approval in August 2021, with final materials being added as copy editing and post-processing were completed. The new HTML version of the site allows people to more easily read the report online. It also features new interactive design elements that make it easier to navigate the more than one million words and 12 chapters of the report plus the Interactive Atlas, which represents the most complete picture to date of the physical science of climate change.
The site has been optimized for online reading with design elements such as expandable sections. In addition, translations of the report Summary for Policymakers and Technical Summary in PDF format are now available in all 6 UN languages, and links are provided to unofficial translations undertaken by governments and volunteers.
Improved transparency and traceability
The new online version of the report also provides tools that make it easier for climate scientists and users of climate information to navigate the report and find supporting details, references, and data.
Materials for the general public
As part of the Sixth Assessment Report, IPCC has developed a number of materials aimed at unpacking climate science for a general audience. The website includes:
Input from the public
In building the site, the IPCC web team and Working Group I Technical Support Unit considered feedback from website users solicited via a survey, and implemented best practices in modern web design.
We welcome your feedback on the usability and accessibility of the new site. Please consider filling out our short survey, available via the website, to share your experiences and help us improve the site for all users.
Lisbon, 13 Oct 2022
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Your Excellency, President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
Professor Antonio Feijó, President of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Dr. Angela Merkel, President of the Jury of the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of scientists — past, present and future — working for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and as the Chair of the IPCC, let me start by saying that we are humbled and honoured to be one of the recipients of the 2022 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity.
We are particularly grateful to the Jury led by Dr. Angela Merkel for recognising the work of the thousands of scientists worldwide who volunteer their expertise and time to work on IPCC reports.
Today, these reports are the most authoritative scientific voice of the United Nations about climate change. They provide the world´s policymakers with robust scientific knowledge about climate change and how to tackle it.
Thank you.
We also thank the Gulbenkian Foundation for your warm welcome and generous hospitality.
This important recognition of climate change science comes at a critical time. The science delivered to the world´s policymakers through our reports is clear and unequivocal. Climate change is man-made, it is widespread and rapid, and it is intensifying.
In 2007, the year the IPCC received the Nobel Peace Prize, the IPCC’s fourth assessment report noted, and I quote:
“Continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming and induce many changes in the global climate system during the 21st century that would very likely be larger than those observed during the 20th century” end quote.
It may be one of the 21st century’s greatest understatements. Fifteen years later the effects of climate change have arrived with a vengeance and no part of the world is being spared. And that’s with global warming of 1.1 degrees Celsius since the middle of the 19th century.
Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during this century unless immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions – which suffocate our planet – occur in the nearest future.
We should make no mistake – climate change is an imminent threat to the health of our planet, our livelihoods, our well-being, and all other species sharing this world with us. Its impacts exacerbate the problems in energy, water, food, and health of humans and ecosystems.
Today, we are not on track to limit warming to 1.5°C.
In fact, average annual greenhouse gas emissions in the last decade were the highest in human history.
The impacts and risks of climate change are becoming increasingly complex and more difficult to manage. Developing nations are particularly vulnerable.
Climate change is not happening somewhere else, to someone else. Parts of Europe recorded the hottest temperatures ever this summer. We´ve seen the stark images of wildfires in the US, France and Australia. Floods in Pakistan. The devastation Hurricane Ian inflicted on Cuba and the US, just to name a few recent extreme events filling our news feeds. Climate change made these events worse.
To put it in no uncertain terms – NOW is the time for climate action. There is no more time for half-measures or complacency.
We cannot embrace indifference or be discouraged by the scale of the challenge. We have the tools and know-how required to limit global warming. It is time to put them to use with far greater urgency.
Delays and inaction today will increase the uncertainty of limiting global warming and result in less time and fewer options for future decision-makers. Delay will lead to more permanent damage. It will mean higher costs to prevent and adapt to climate change. Delay is a losing proposition.
It is encouraging that more and more countries are taking action. But the world needs to dramatically ramp up its response to climate change. The window of opportunity is closing rapidly. Our failure to act collectively now will only multiply and increase our challenges in the future.
Our reports assess that current financial flows are three to six times below the levels needed by 2030 to limit warming to below 1.5°C or 2°C. The challenge is greatest for developing countries.
There is enough global capital and liquidity to tackle the problem. But financiers need more explicit signalling from governments and the international community. Achieving global low emissions and just transitions depend upon accelerated international financial cooperation.
It also depends upon collaboration across different stakeholders so that society can embrace policies and measures for climate solutions and for achieving sustainable development.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We face many crises today. Ominous threats to the world´s peace and security. Food crises. Energy crises. Cost of living crises.
Allow me a provocative thought: These crises pale next to the sheer magnitude and complexity of the climate challenge we face. Climate change worsens energy crises, food crises, and challenges to peace and security. It will continue damaging energy, food, water, health and biodiversity.
But we can elevate our ambitions and take decisive climate action for the benefit of our planet and humanity. Climate change warrants genuine planetary cooperation and solidarity.
By doing so, we may find ourselves inspired and better equipped to find solutions to other global challenges.
Science is an essential instrument with which to tackle climate change. For IPCC scientists, the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity is an important recognition and encouragement.
Therefore, I´m delighted to announce that the generous purse that comes with the Prize will further boost the funding of the IPCC´s Scholarship Programme. This initiative provides scholarships for doctoral students from developing nations, supporting the work of young researchers and strengthening equity, inclusion and diversity in the IPCC’s work. Your generous contribution will allow young scientists to conduct research that advances their understanding of climate change risks and response strategies.
Receiving this prize is a collective distinction and inspiration for IPCC scientists, member governments and staff behind the IPCC. We accept it with great professional pride and humility.
After all, climate solution requires more than science and technology. It calls on everyone to work together to solve a problem that now affects every region of the world and to join in a common purpose for the sake of our planet and our fellow human beings. It asks all of us to be our brother’s and sister’s keepers.
Thank you.
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is honored to have been declared a co-laureate of the 2022 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, together with the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
The Jury of the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity led by Dr. Angela Merkel, selected the IPCC and IPBES out of 116 nominations from 41 countries, in recognition of “…the role of science on the front line of tackling climate change and the loss of biodiversity.”
“On behalf of IPCC scientists who deliver the most up-to-date and robust climate change knowledge to the world’s policymakers, we are honored to receive this prominent award,” said Hoesung Lee, the Chair of the IPCC.
“Science is our most powerful instrument to tackle climate change, a clear and imminent threat to our wellbeing and livelihoods, the wellbeing of our planet and all of its species. For IPCC scientists, this prize is an important recognition and encouragement. For the decision-makers, it is another push for more decisive climate action.”
The prize was launched by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 2020 with the objective of distinguishing those persons and organisations from around the world whose work has greatly contributed to mitigating the impacts of climate change. It comes with a generous purse of 1 million Euros.
IPCC´s share of this year´s prize funds, an amount of EUR 500,000, will be used to boost the funding of IPCC´s Scholarship Programme. This important initiative provides scholarships for doctoral students from developing nations and countries with economies in transition to conduct research that advances their understanding of climate change risks and response strategies. The IPCC Scholarship programme delivers critical support for young researchers and strengthens equity, inclusion and diversity in IPCC’s work
The Chair of the IPCC, Hoesung Lee, received the award on behalf of the IPCC at a ceremony on 13 October 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal.