According to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on Monday, the average global temperatures would rise by more than two degree Celsius by 2100 compared to pre-industrial times unless “deep reductions” in greenhouse gas emissions are initiated immediately.
The IPCC released the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), its latest evaluation of the state of earth’s climate, the changes happening therein, and the impacts these are having on the planet, and life forms. The voluminous assessment reports are the most widely-accepted scientific opinion on the status of earth’s climate. The report, which calls climate change clearly human-caused and unequivocal, makes more precise and warmer forecasts for the 21st century than it did last time it was issued in 2013. The AR6 says that observed changes in earth’s climate, induced by global warming were unprecedented in thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands of years. Each of five scenarios for the future, based on how much carbon emissions are cut, passes the more stringent of two thresholds set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. World leaders agreed then to try to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 19th century because problems mount quickly after that.
The IPCC, which was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP), does not produce any new science itself. Instead, it assembles scientists from all over the world to review all the relevant scientific literature on climate change, and arrive at general conclusions about the trends being observed.
