IPCC report: Charts detail climate change

Climate change has not been caused by one bad actor, and it won’t be solved by one silver bullet. Instead, climate change is being caused by a web of problems and is being addressed by another web of mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Globally, there has been significant progress to limit greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming, but it hasn’t been enough.

It’s a complicated story and the charts, included as part of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report which was published Monday, tell the story visually, which can be helpful.

While the mix of factors and solutions are all incremental, the consequences of inaction are both dire and clear.

“We are on a fast track to climate disaster: Major cities under water. Unprecedented heatwaves. Terrifying storms. Widespread water shortages. The extinction of a million species of plants and animals. This is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said on Monday in response to the report.

The reason climate change is a problem is because global anthropogenic ¢meaning originating from human behavior — greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing. Taken as a whole, emissions reductions from efficiencies have been less than emissions increases that come from rising global activity.

In order to limit global warming to around 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, which is the generally accepted goal established by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, greenhouse gas emissions need to reach their highest peak before 2025, according to scenarios the IPCC analyzed. By 2030, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 43%, according to the report, which was authored by 278 scientists and experts.

That’s not where the world is currently headed. “Current climate pledges would mean a 14% increase in emissions,” Guterres said on Monday. “And most major emitters are not taking the steps needed to fulfill even these inadequate promises.” 

It is also true, however, that the rate of growth of greenhouse gas emissions between 2010 and 2019 was lower than that between 2000 and 2009.

“Climate change is the result of more than a century of unsustainable energy and land use, lifestyles and patterns of consumption and production,” said IPCC Working Group III Co-Chair Jim Skea in a written statement published alongside the report. “This report shows how…