Scientists and governments met this week [February 14, 2022] to finalise a major UN report on how global warming disrupts people’s lives, the environment, and the Earth at large.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – a collection of hundreds of the world’s top scientists – issues three reports on climate change every five to seven years.
The latest update, which won’t be peer-reviewed and published in its entirety until the end of February, will explain how climate change already affects humans and the planet, what to expect in the future, and the risks and benefits of adapting to a warmer world.
“We’re concerned that the physical climate around us is changing,” said panel co-chair Debra Roberts, a South African environmental scientist. “But for most people in their day-to-day lives… they want to know: so what (?) What does it mean for their lives, their aspirations, their jobs, their families, the places where they live.”
The report features seven regional chapters “about how physical changes in the climate change people’s lives,” she said. And she added that it will have a strong emphasis on cities.
Even without seeing the final report, several activists are calling it a warning sign for the planet.
Scientists haven’t (specifically) said what’s in the report owing to a critical summary, which includes intense negotiation between the authors and governments, over the next two weeks, with the consensus needed for the final version.
Drafts that have circulated publicly will be changed – “sometimes dramatically” – before it is publicly released on 28 February 2022.
The first of three reports issued in August 2021 prompted the UN to declare ‘code red’ when it outlined the physical science of climate change. A third report that is due in March 2022 will highlight what more can be done to curb and adapt to global warming.
The report will also address ways to adapt to an ever-warming world, including how some “technological fixes” may have unwanted side effects.
Environmentalists argue that the extreme weather already seen in parts of the world in recent years shows how urgent it is for governments to address the rising cost of climate change.
