The UN’s Sixth Annual Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report

Discourse around climate change is nothing new. Protesters have been taking to the streets for decades in the fight for both climate change and global warming. Politicians have made empty promises and made the environment a key issue in their campaigns, all while building new pipelines and pursuing economic interests, at the peril of the environment. Scientists have been ringing the alarm bells for ages, and yet, companies still fail to change towards a more sustainable future and economy. Some politicians even deny that climate change exists at all. In 2021, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their AR6 report on the state of the global climate and the fight against climate change. They have been releasing yearly reports for 6 years. The panel’s findings are grim to say the least.

Scientists have been warning the general population that we must keep our rising global temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius or we will run the risk of encountering very dangerous living conditions in the future. According to the IPCC’s report, the earth is warming very quickly. As set out in their report, we are already approaching the 1.5°C threshold. Humans have been estimated to have caused a rise of approximately 1.07°C of our current global warming trend. By staying below the 1.5°C threshold, we could prevent some of the irreversible consequences of climate change, but we will still face some scary stuff.

By staying under 1.5°C of warming, according to the report, it is still likely that the Arctic will continue to warm quickly. Furthermore, if we fail to meet this threshold, the consequences will worsen, every additional 0.5°C of global warming will have some very serious side effects on

the climate. The more we warm the planet, the less the environment can absorb all the greenhouse gases we emit. This would only worsen the effects of the climate changes occurring.

As outlined by the IPCC, unless we cut our emissions of greenhouse gases drastically and soon, we are on track to warm the global temperature by at least 2°C. We are already at the halfway point. The IPCC’s report includes 5 scenarios of the severity, the Arctic could warm before the end of the 21st century. In all scenarios, the threshold of 1.5°C is at least reached. In other scenarios, the increase is at over 4°C. Staying within the range of 1.5°C is our best-case scenario.

Despite the scary possibilities outlined, there is hope. By reducing our greenhouse gas emissions now, we can prevent anything more than a 1.5 degree rise from happening in the future. The reports from the UN are not meant to scare us, but to push us to take climate change seriously and to act while we still have the luxury of time. We still have time, at least a decade, to move to a cleaner and sustainable future. Let’s use this time wisely.