The ‘Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report’, released on Monday, following a week-long IPCC session in Interlaken, highlights the losses and damages experienced now and are expected to continue, hitting the most vulnerable people and ecosystems especially hard.

Temperatures have already risen to 1,1°C above pre-industrial levels, a consequence of more than a century of burning fossil fuels, as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use.

‘Time is short’

As a result, we experience more frequent and intense extreme weather events (heat waves, droughts, flooding, etc.) that have caused increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world. And any increase in global warming will intensify the dangers.

If temperatures are to be kept to 1,5°C above pre-industrial levels, we will need deep, rapid, and sustained greenhouse gas emission reductions in all sectors, the report states. Emissions must go down; they’ll have to be cut by almost half by 2030 if this goal can be achieved. “There is a clear path forward, but time is short,” the report warns.

‘Climate Resilient Development’

The solution proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is ‘climate resilient development’, which involves integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide more comprehensive benefits.

Examples include access to clean energy, low-carbon electrification, zero- and low-carbon transport promotion, and improved air quality. According to one of the authors, “the greatest gains in well-being could come from prioritizing climate risk reduction for low-income and marginalized communities”.

Livable, sustainable future

Changes in the food sector, electricity, transport, industry, buildings, and land use are highlighted as important ways to cut emissions and move to low-carbon lifestyles, which would improve health and well-being. There’s no future for coal, oil, and gas on a liveable planet.

The Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that we can still secure a livable, sustainable future for all if we act now.

Time bomb

In a video message released on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the report as a “how-to guide to defuse the climate time bomb”. In addition, Mr. Guterres announced that he is presenting a plan to boost efforts to achieve the Climate Solidarity Pact (in which all big emitters would make extra efforts to cut emissions) through an Acceleration Agenda, which involves leaders of developed countries committing to reaching net zero as close as possible to 2040, and developing countries as close as possible to 2050.

The Agenda calls for an end to coal, net-zero electricity generation by 2035 for all developed countries and 2040 for the rest of the world, and a stop to all licensing or funding of new oil and gas and any expansion of existing oil and gas reserves. But the future of fossil fuels is becoming more and more a political question.

The next UN climate conference is to be held in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December 2023.