WHAT IS THE IPCC REPORT & WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
The IPCC is meeting right now and will deliver its summary report in early August which in turn will be used by those meeting in Glasgow, Scotland from October 31 to November 12, 2021. But what is the IPCC and why is this report so important? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the full name of this body and the summary presented in August will contain the most up-to-date scientific information on climate change in the world. This information will then be utilized by those meeting in Glasgow at the United Nation’s “Earth Summit” or Council of Parties (COP26) which will set agreements and policies that deal with the ongoing warming of the planet. It is important to emphasize that the IPCC does not do the scientific research itself nor does it offer political remedies or solutions. The IPCC gathers, synthesizes, reviews through many perspectives and reports the scientific basis for the Council of Parties (COP) to form policies, programs and agreements.
The United Nations Program on Environment (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Org. in 1988, established the IPCC to assess climate change based on the latest scientific information available. Governments represented in the UN were asked to appoint their best and brightest scientists to lead the 5 -7 year process of gathering information which led to international agreements that have become called, “Earth summits”. This year’s summary report will, of course, represent the vast improvement in scientific data collection and analysis and the inclusion of more socioeconomic data and sustainability projections for humans and other species related to development. The inclusion of governments in the selection and recommendation of lead scientists and the overall scientific review process that all parties must go through increases by-in to the consensus of policies in the end coming from the “Earth Summit”. The IPCC Usually has three Working Groups; Group 1 dealing with physical science (reporting in August and others in spring 2022), Working Group 11 dealing with vulnerability of human and natural systems dealing with climate change, Working Group 111 dealing with options for limiting heat trapping emissions and a Special Task Force on gathering data from all nations on their green-house-gas emissions as existing and projected into the future (less fudging of the exact amount being generated so that more realistic policies might be made). The lead scientists are backed up by thousands of other scientific inputs, reviews and then reviews on the reviews. A regular scientific article for review might need 3 peer reviews before being published. The IPCC undergoes thousands of reviews, settlements of disagreements and critics before inclusion in the summary report. All this is to say, the world can be assured that the information given by the IPCC is the best in the world and can be trusted. Then, the COP makes policies which countries will hopefully put into real policies to address the climate crisis based on well researched and well trusted scientific data.
Earth Steward Action: Become aware of the work of the COP26 this fall and get behind policies that might follow
Sources: https://www.ucusa.org/resources/ipcc-who-are-they
https://www.wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?3277966/ipcc-wgi-report Https://ukcop26.org