A new UN report will set out a stark message on the state of the climate crisis, raising pressure on governments meeting ahead of crucial Cop26 talks in the autumn.
- The report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published on Monday is the first part of a review of current scientific knowledge about how the world is warming due to human activity.
- Since 2013, it is the first such global assessment, when scientists found drawing on more than 14,000 scientific papers that global warming was “unequivocal” and human influence on the climate was clear, with the majority of warming since the 1950s extremely likely to be down to human activity.
- A summary report is being published after being approved in a process involving scientists and representatives of 195 governments that has taken place online over the last two weeks.
- The message in the latest report is expected to be even stronger, with warnings of how soon global temperatures could rise 1.5C above pre-industrial levels a limit that countries have pledged to try to avoid breaching because of the dangerous consequences for humanity.
- UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa has warned that many countries have not brought forward new action plans for cutting their emissions a key part of what they need to do before the Cop26 climate summit and those that have are not doing enough.
The report released on Monday is the first part of the sixth global assessment of climate science to be undertaken since the IPCC was formed in 1988. It looks at the physical science of climate change, with further parts of the review covering impacts and adapting to climate change, and solutions to the crisis will be published in 2022.