UN climate report to highlight solutions to drive systems transformation

Posted on 18 Mar 2022
A new report from the IPCC will showcase the climate solutions that are already available and the potential of new innovations.

(18 March 2022) - On Monday, the virtual approval session begins for the new climate science report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report is expected to outline the many methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the potential of these solutions to drive the systems transformation our planet needs. 

This is the third in a series of reports highlighting the latest in climate science as part of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report. The first part, on physical science, highlighted that burning of fossil fuels and destroying natural ecosystems drives global warming and results in worsening hazards such as heat-waves, drought and sea-level rise. The second part linked these hazards to widespread and pervasive impacts leading to losses and damages for people and wildlife, and it highlighted how adaptation solutions, including protecting and restoring nature, can help buffer the worst impacts of climate change.

This third part will dive deep into how to reduce emissions in important sectors such as energy, industry, infrastructure, transport and land-use - including food and agriculture. It is expected to highlight that only with rapid, deep and sustained cuts to greenhouse gas emissions can we limit global warming to 1.5°C and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Dr Stephen Cornelius, WWF Global Lead for IPCC said: “The next IPCC report will paint a bleak picture of our addiction to fossil fuels. It will highlight the need to fix the unsustainable energy, industrial and food systems that are causing the climate and nature crises. Unless governments take immediate action to deliver on their promises, slash carbon emissions and protect nature, we will continue to pollute our atmosphere and the window to limit warming to 1.5°C will shut, leaving us unable to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

“But there is hope as the IPCC will showcase solutions already available and the potential of new innovations. Governments, businesses, cities and financial institutions the world over must now grasp the severity of our situation, and scale up these solutions before it is too late.”

Notes for editors:

  1. The IPCC Working Group III report - Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change - Summary for Policymakers (SPM) will be discussed line-by-line by governments at a two-week virtual approval session starting 21 March. If approved, the SPM and the several-thousand-page scientific assessment report will be released on 4 April 2022 at 11am CEST.
  2. The IPCC is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. 
  3. The Working Group III report is the third of four parts of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report. The Working Group I report (physical science of climate change) was released in August 2021 and the Working Group II report (impacts, adaptation and vulnerability) was released last month. The Synthesis Report which brings together information from all three working group reports will be released in October 2022.

For more information, contact:
WWF International Media team - news@wwfint.org 

A man and a woman ride past wind turbines near a frozen reservoir on the outskirts of Beijing, China.

A man and a woman ride past wind turbines near a frozen reservoir on the outskirts of Beijing, China.

© WWF/ Fred Dufour