Climate Corner: The 2023 IPCC Report

INTRODUCTION

The IPCC Report, or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, is a comprehensive assessment of the thousands of published papers on climate change that come out each year. It aims to offer an objective and thorough synthesis of information to be used to craft climate change public policy, including a summary and less technical version of the document, which is meant specifically for policymakers. The 2023 report began releasing on March 20th, and pieces will continue to come out over the next few months.The decisions made as a result of this report can have massive global impact, so its relevance for policymakers is extremely high. In this post, we’ll be discussing what the IPCC Report is in greater detail, going over the 2023 report key findings, and sharing why this is important to everyone–not just policymakers and scientists. 

What is The IPCC Report?

The IPCC Report is not a work of original research, but rather a summary of a large mass of original research put out by others. It focuses on discussing potential climate change causes and drivers, its effects and risks, and ways to reduce these risks through adaptation and mitigation practices. The IPCC Report is only one part of the work done by the IPCC. Its main goal is to provide governments at all levels with digestible scientific information to inform policy choices. There are currently 195 country members around the world, and thousands of experts volunteer their time to help create each annual report. 

The report is split into three working sections. The first focuses on the physical and natural science of climate change, its causes, and the technical details of how and why it is developing the way it is. The second discusses the impacts of climate change, ways to adapt, and the vulnerability of different groups and regions. The final section focuses on strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change. The report also undergoes extensive reviews from various expert panels before being ready for publishing. To make it more accessible to a larger audience, several versions are made available. This includes the full report, which in 2022 was over 3000 pages, a technical summary (around 80 pages), and a summary for policymakers (which is around 40 pages). In the 2023 report, they’ve also created separate releases for figures used, a pre-made set of presentation slides discussing the findings, as well as a press release and series of headline statements for a quick-read summary of the most important findings for the general public. 

What Should I Know From The Latest Report?

Current Status and Climate Trends

With the latest report so recently published, what’s important for us to know if we’re not scientists or policymakers? To start, the report discusses the current state of climate change and warming–and it’s not the best news. The report states high confidence in human-caused climate change through greenhouse gas emissions. As of 2020, the Earth’s atmosphere has risen 1.1℃ compared to what it was in 1900, pre-Industrial Revolution. This is seemingly a result of land use change, energy consumption, and unsustainable patterns of consumption. This temperature increase has caused changes across many natural systems, including the atmosphere (weather), hydrosphere (ocean), biosphere (plant and animal life), and cryosphere (ice). This includes intensifying climate extremes across regions. These extremes create losses and damage to nature and people, particularly in vulnerable communities that have historically contributed the least to climate change as a whole.

This hasn’t happened without responses from around the world. Adaptation strategies, designed to help communities and natural systems exist around the effects of climate change, have advanced around the world, with several documented benefits. To reach full effectiveness, certain social systems, such as financial flows, will have to change to allow these strategies to be fully implemented, and current strategies leave certain vulnerable communities behind. Policies and laws around climate mitigation have also expanded dramatically. However, changes in each country's nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to climate change, or the efforts each country has agreed to to reduce emissions and adapt, show that as it stands now it is likely the Earth will exceed the 1.5℃ warming goal within the century, and may have difficulty staying below the 2℃ mark.

Climate Change, Risks, and Long-Term Responses

Current estimates project greenhouse gas emissions will increase, and most of our best estimates place the minimum global warming at 1.5℃. The further the planet warms, the more hazards associated with climate change increase. As it stands now, there are effects that can no longer be avoided, but any further consequences can be limited. If action is taken and sustained, we could see a noticeable slowing of warming within the next twenty years, and a notable change in atmospheric composition within the next few years. This would also decrease the likelihood of environmental catastrophe. Action now ensures that the paths taken are fully effective–the longer we wait, the less effective current adaptation routes will become in the face of increasing global warming. 

The long-term action most instrumental in limiting human-caused global warming is reducing CO2 emissions until a global net-zero is reached. To keep warming below 1.5℃, net-zero would need to be reached in the 2050s. To keep it below 2.0℃, it would need to be reached in the 2070s. If these goals aren’t met and heating exceeds these levels, there is a possibility of returning it to acceptable levels using carbon dioxide removal and other technologies. Overall, long-term solutions must be enacted across governments, businesses, and personal homes to reduce global heating. 

Near-Term Action

Across the report, the statement with the highest confidence is that climate change is a threat to human and planetary health, and that action must be taken this decade to ensure a livable future for everyone. Action taken now is more feasible, less expensive, and less likely to leave assets behind or get locked in with high emissions infrastructure. The scale of action necessary may involve high up-front costs and drastic systemic and personal change, but both of these effects can be mitigated with proper policy work. Luckily, as it stands now, there are options for relatively low-cost, effective, and feasible systemic change across various sectors of life. As these options are assessed and implemented, it will be more important than ever to ensure action taken is equitable and inclusive. Many of the most vulnerable populations are forgotten by climate legislation, and a truly holistic approach to containing climate change cannot be pursued without prioritizing climate justice, diversity, and social protections. Cooperation will be needed on a global scale in both governance and the distribution of global capital to ensure no one is left behind in the endeavor to ensure a hopeful future. Even as it stands now given current technology and societal regulations, none of this is impossible, and in many instances there are multiple options currently available towards achieving any number of these steps towards sustainable development and living. 

What Can We Do?

This may sound like a lot of bad news–but it’s far from hopeless. Outside of systemic change, there’s a lot we can do as individuals to incite change on a community and small-scale level, and these actions can have a much greater impact than first meets the eye. So, what can we do?

There’s general personal actions everyone can take: recycling, choosing to walk or bike when possible, being conscious of food waste reduction practices such as proper food storage, and much more. More information on individual change can be found here from the UN Campaign for Individual Action.

More direct action includes voting, finding opportunities to advocate and make your voice heard in local and state hearings, and joining various environmental actions to take part in volunteer campaigns. Most county, city, and state departments release calendars of upcoming public hearings and what’s on the agenda to be discussed. These are prime opportunities to have your voice and opinions heard directly by the government officials that will be voting on future action. On top of this, in Florida there are several volunteer organizations that host opportunities to get involved year-round. A few examples of places to get involved include:

• The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
• The Nature Conservancy Florida 
• Audubon Florida
• Sierra Club - Florida Chapter
• Sustainable Tallahassee

• More lists for North Florida can be found here and here!

Closing

The recent publication of the IPCC report delivers an urgent warning about the state of the environment and the action needed to achieve a sustainable and livable future. It also discusses how the action we need to take is perfectly within our grasp and within our capabilities as long as we take the steps to start. While it may feel in the face of such a large-scale change that individuals may not be able to do much, there are many actions we can take to get the process rolling. Personal lifestyle changes, making the effort to make your voice heard in various levels of government, and getting involved with various conservation and environmental efforts may feel small in comparison, but can help spark much greater change. No action is too small, and collective action starts with the individual. 

Learn More

Want to know more about environmental news, what it means for you, and what you can do? Check out the rest of our blog articles here! Looking for local ways to get involved with the environment at Florida State University? Check out our various programs here and get involved right here on campus! Finally, to stay up to date on new blog posts and upcoming events follow us on Instagram at @fsusustainable!

References

“About — IPCC.” IPCC, www.ipcc.ch/about.

“AR6 Synthesis Report: Summary for Policymakers Headline Statements.” IPCC, www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/resources/spm-headline-statements.

“Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.” IPCC, www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2.

“Environmental Organizations - Tallahassee - LocalWiki.” LocalWiki, localwiki.org/tallahassee/Environmental_organizations.

Event Calendar - FWC Outreach. outreach.myfwc.com/events/event_list.asp.

“History — IPCC.” IPCC, www.ipcc.ch/about/history.

“The Latest IPCC Report: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?” The Nature Conservancy, 27 Feb. 2022, www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/ipcc-report-climate-change.

Long, Vincent, and Tessa Shcreiner. “Leon County Integrated Sustainability Action Plan.” Leon County Government, Leon County of Florida Government, 2019, cms.leoncountyfl.gov/Portals/7/docs/isap.pdf?ver=gvPVtJqxelcxALV0gq0meA%3D%3D.

“Sixth Assessment Report: Synthesis Report.” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, report.ipcc.ch/ar6syr/pdf/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SlideDeck.pdf.

United Nations. “Act Now | United Nations.” United Nations, www.un.org/en/actnow.

“Volunteer.” Sierra Club, www.sierraclub.org/florida/volunteer.