What’s in the new IPCC report (and what does it mean)?

The latest IPCC report was published on 28th February – but what does it say, and what does it mean? In this article we’ll take a look at what the IPCC reports are, what this one contains, and what it means for climate action.

It’s always crucial to note that there is often heavy-handed reporting about climate change reports when they are published – at Ecologi, we’re here to help you make sense of the science, and understand what you can do to support climate action around the world.

Content warning: some of the content from the IPCC report, which we describe below, can be very challenging to read, and cause feelings of panic or anxiety. Our team urges readers to consider their mental health when reading coverage of the IPCC reports, and take breaks, stop reading or seek support if you feel you may need it. We’ve collected some resources at the bottom of this post, from our friends and partners, to help you feel supported.

What are the IPCC reports?

IPCC Assessment Reports are scientific updates on the status of climate change science and impacts. They take place every few years, and involve hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists. We are currently in the middle of the cycle for the Sixth Assessment Report.

The IPCC has three Working Groups which, in their contributions to the Assessment Reports, cover different aspects of climate science. The most recent Working Group I contribution was published in August 2021, concerning the physical science of climate change.

This latest report, published 28th February 2022, concerns impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change. IPCC reports are published with hundreds – or thousands – of pages of research findings, alongside a shorter Summary for Policymakers and a Technical Summary, each of which aims to summarise the key findings of the report.

What’s in this report?

The Summary for Policymakers begins by emphasising the interdependence of climate, ecosystems, biodiversity and human societies, and that safeguarding and restoring nature is key to securing a liveable future for humanity. It notes that “human-caused climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme events, has caused widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people”.

Climate and weather extremes have already led to some irreversible impacts, as both natural and human systems are “pushed beyond their ability to adapt”. The new report acknowledges that across all sectors and regions, it is the most vulnerable people and ecosystems which are the most disproportionately affected by the consequences of climate change.

With the publication of this latest Working Group report, the IPCC stresses that urgent action is required to deal with ever-increasing risks associated with further climate change – but that taking action now can still secure our future. The magnitude of climate impacts which have already been observed – and those which are projected to take place – should give us an idea of the scale of the policymaking and funding that is required over the next decade. Real, transformational change is needed.

The report stresses again that the less warming we produce, the less damaging the impacts – and the cheaper they will be to deal with. It notes that the costs associated with climate-related damage and adaptation are significantly lower at 1.5ºC than at higher amounts of warming. This refutes the common misconception that it “costs” something to take action on climate – it doesn’t, since the cost of inaction is much, much greater. There has also been evidence of ‘maladaptation’ – efforts to adapt to climate change which have been poorly-designed or executed and are therefore not producing the right outcomes.

The WGII report strongly emphasises new research into the linkages between climate impacts and issues of climate and social justice. As well as leaning on bodies of establishment academic research, there is new – and welcome – attention to the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in our response to this huge challenge.

Climate change has altered ecosystems on land and underwater, all around the world. The report is clear that some effects have been observed earlier, more widely and more severely than had previously been anticipated. Often, physiological or population-level adaptations are insufficient to cope with recent climate change, and this drives extinctions for many species.

The risk framework used in the IPCC report relates multiple components of risk: hazard, exposure and vulnerability. Vulnerability to climate change is intersectional – relating to “political, economic, and cultural processes of marginalisation” – and the greater the inequity within a society, the less resilience to climate risks there is. The report also notes that there are new types of risk which will be generated by interactions between the existing types of risks – unexpected compounding or cascading risks which can place extreme stress on, for example, global food supply chains.

Loss of species causes ecosystem restructuring to a large degree, as well as causing losses and damages to human systems, and impacting human behaviours and activities. And extreme weather events caused by climate change (such as wildfires, floods, droughts, heatwaves) are already causing widespread and severe loss and damage.

The new IPCC report also notes that each 0.1ºC warming puts more species, ecosystems and people at risk – which is why it is crucial that we must work against every single fraction of a degree of warming.

We know that thriving and biodiverse ecosystems have innumerable benefits – both for humans and for nature itself, and they also provide greater opportunities to reduce climate risks. This means that restoration of nature is a crucial tool in our toolbox for both mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.

Extreme weather events, habitat fragmentation and pollution are causing irreversible damage to many ecosystems. The increased frequency of these events will also decrease the recovery time available for these ecosystems, leaving them even more vulnerable. 

Pathways of warming which include temporary temperature increases beyond the “well below 2ºC” warming targets will have severe consequences for both natural and human systems – such as glacier melt, loss of coral reefs – even if the more ambitious warming goals are reached afterward.

Observed climate impacts are already putting strain on food and forestry systems, with negative consequences for livelihoods, food security and nutrition for millions of people around the world. Roughly half of the world’s population are already experiencing severe water scarcity for at least one month per year, and a key factor in this is poor water governance. Food insecurity and water scarcity will become more prevalent with each increment in warming, especially in regions where vulnerability is high. 

Impacts of rising sea-level are already being felt in coastal areas, and risks posed by sea-level rise will continue to accelerate beyond 2100 – even if we put a stop to emissions today. 

Human mental and physical health is already being affected by climate change – especially among women, children, the elderly, Indigenous people, low-income households and socially marginalised groups. 

Some parts of the world which are currently highly populated will become unsafe or uninhabitable due to increased frequency and/or severity of climate change-induced extreme weather events, like droughts or floods. This will influence the movement of people and will also mean many millions of people become climate refugees in the coming years.

There are key changes to our current strategies which must be implemented if we are to prevent the impacts of climate change worsening.

Fundamental to the success of those next steps we take is the centering of climate justice in our adaptation efforts. The incorporation of Indigenous knowledge, the centering of the needs of underrepresented people in society, and the focusing of resources in areas most affected by climate change will all be crucial in making the best decisions around adaptation. 

If we go about things the right way, then tackling climate change will present us with an incredible opportunity to accelerate sustainable development and build a fairer and more just world. These two missions are tightly interlinked, with social and gender equity being key components to solving both problems. Additionally, improved healthcare provision and education can support climate-resilient development.

In this way, the report tells us what we already know – that the solutions to climate change are interlinked with the solutions to other global challenges like justice and equity. These solutions exist in the world already – and we simply need to choose to implement them, fast.

The final few lines of the new IPCC report tell us what we need to know:

The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.

The first overarching message of this report – like all the others, but louder now – is exactly that: we need to act. The second crucial message is that the window of opportunity is closing – but it is not closed yet. There is still time to act, and we must do so swiftly, comprehensively and inclusively. 

We’ve collected some steps that we can all take right now – today, after reading this article, to help force action on climate.

Things you can do now:

• Take your first steps to becoming an environmental activist with our step-by-step guide – including concrete steps like arming yourself with knowledge, writing to your representatives and more.
• Speak to people around you – your friends, loved ones, colleagues. Tell them how you feel about the climate crisis, help them to understand how urgent the issue is, and organise with them.
• Divest your money from fossil fuels – if you have savings, pensions, investments, take them away from banks that fund fossil fuel investments and support ethical funds only.
• Join Ecologi’s movement of collective action, as we come together to help fund climate solutions around the world, with the goal to reduce half of the world’s projected emissions by 2040.

In facing the climate crisis, we need all of us to be resilient. Resilience doesn’t mean never feeling sad or angry about climate change – it means taking steps to securing long term wellbeing and agency in the face of the challenges we face.

‘Eco-anxiety’ and similar terms can relate to stress, depression, anxiety, despair and other powerful emotions which are heightened as a result of the climate and ecological emergency. ‘Eco-grief’ or ‘climate grief’ also describe feelings of grief and mourning for the losses and destruction associated with the crisis – either those that have already happened, or those still to come.

If you are feeling burned out, overwhelmed, or in despair, we’ve collected some resources from organisations doing amazing work on eco-anxiety, which we hope might help.

• The All We Can Save Project is an amazing resource for community building and sharing deeper dialogue about the climate crisis. There’s a book, All We Can Save, to read – or you could start an All We Can Save Circle which you could start with your friends or in your workplace. The Project also lists resources for working with climate emotions.
• Force of Nature runs a thought-provoking podcast centred around eco-anxiety and how to turn eco-anxiety into agency, as well as a media platform called The Bloom for young voices to express their feelings, thoughts and actions in the face of the climate crisis.
• The Resilience Project trains young people to run peer-to-peer support circles based on the latest insights from psychology and neuroscience to build a resilient generation of youth.
• The Climate Psychology Alliance holds regular online ‘Climate Cafes’ which you can attend to discuss fears & uncertainties about our climate & ecological crisis, all while in a safe and empathetic space with others who feel the same.