For the most balanced and accurate summary I can find on what’s in the report released Monday by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, I’m relying on the press release from the
IPCC itself.
Here are the first three paragraphs:
"In 2010-2019 average annual global greenhouse gas emissions were at their highest levels in human history, but the rate of growth has slowed. Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C is beyond reach. However, there is increasing evidence of climate action, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released today.
"Since 2010, there have been sustained decreases of up to 85% in the costs of solar and wind energy, and batteries. An increasing range of policies and laws have enhanced energy efficiency, reduced rates of deforestation and accelerated the deployment of renewable energy.
“We are at a crossroads. The decisions we make now can secure a liveable future. We have the tools and know-how required to limit warming,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. “I am encouraged by climate action being taken in many countries. There are policies, regulations and market instruments that are proving effective. If these are scaled up and applied more widely and equitably, they can support deep emissions reductions and stimulate innovation.”
So there’s a lot on humans’ to-do list. And it’s doable, if we humans decide to do it.
U.N. Environment Program Director Inger Andersen says with reports like these, officials are walking a tightrope. They're trying to spur the world to action without sending people spiraling into paralysis.
“We are not doomed, but rapid action is absolutely essential,” Andersen says. “With every month or year that we delay action, climate change becomes more complex, expensive and difficult to overcome.”
“The big message we’ve got (is that) human activities got us into this problem and human agency can actually get us out of it again,” says James Skea, co-chair of Monday’s report. “It’s not all lost. We really have the chance to do something.”
“It’s not that they’re saying you are condemned to a future of destruction and increasing misery,” says Christiana Figueres, the former U.N. climate secretary who helped forge the 2015 Paris climate agreement and now runs an organization called Global Optimism. “What they’re saying is ’the business-as-usual path ... is an atlas of misery ’ or a future of increasing destruction. But we don’t have to choose that. And that’s the piece, the second piece, that sort of always gets dropped out of the conversation.”
“Underneath doomerism and hopeium is the question of ‘Are we going to win?’” says Mary Annaïse Heglar, a climate essayist and co-host of the “Hot Take” podcast and newsletter. “That’s premature at this point. We need to ask ourselves if we’re going to try. We don’t know till we try if we’re going to win. Whether or not we do, it will still have been worth it.”