What’s Happening
This week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations’ premier climate authority, released its Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report.
The report is a review of our climate vulnerabilities and how we can adapt to them. The IPCC defines climate vulnerability as the level of sensitivity that ecosystems or human populations have to the effects of climate change. Adaptation is the process of creating more resilient human and natural systems to reduce their vulnerability to the existing and expected effects of climate change.
Why It Matters
The report outlines the significant impacts of climate change on the world, assesses the vulnerability of our socio-economic and natural systems, and reviews the options for nature and human society to adapt to this. As Hoesing Lee, Chair of the IPCC, affirms: “It emphasizes the urgency of immediate and more ambitious action to address climate risks.”
Many of the risks associated with climate change aren’t new, including increased extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and more.
However, the report does show that some of these effects are unavoidable due to the warming that is already occurring. It also underlines the emerging evidence that climate change is compounding with other global challenges, such as inequality and biodiversity loss.
Moreover, the authors emphasize how communities already at the margins are most vulnerable to these effects, such as small island nations, agriculture-reliant regions in Africa, economically underdeveloped parts of the world, and countries with unstable political regimes.
Finally, Working Group II stresses the need for climate adaptation. The report concludes: “Despite progress, adaptation gaps exist between current levels of adaptation and levels needed to respond to impacts and reduce climate risks.”
My Take
The Working Group II report reaffirms what IPCC scientists have been saying for years: climate change is real, it has serious consequences for humanity, and we must act now to prevent the worst of these.
The report’s climate adaptation section is the most interesting, reviewing the many options we have to adapt to climate change. In particular, it outlines three avenues that it determines have the highest level of “potential feasibility:”
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Forest-based adaptation (planting more trees, conserving existing forests, better forest management)
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Energy reliability (constant access to secure, reliable energy)
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Resilient power systems (upgrading our infrastructure to better handle extreme weather events such as winter storm Uri in Texas last year)
The role of nature in helping us adapt to climate change is huge. From mangrove forests to peatlands, natural ecosystems help our societies be more resilient in the face of extreme weather events.
Another crucial takeaway is the importance of energy security. As we transition to cleaner energies, we must prioritize reliability and resiliency, both environmentally and geopolitically. We cannot tackle climate change if continents like Europe are reliant on fossil fuels from authoritarian countries like Russia.
Quote Me On It
“The world hasn’t paid enough attention to adaptation. In countries like Bangladesh, climate change is already here. The new IPCC report emphasizes that natural climate solutions, such as planting trees and restoring ecosystems, are crucial in helping these vulnerable places adapt to climate change. Those are the kinds of common-sense, optimistic solutions we must embrace immediately.” – National Policy Director Christopher Barnard