The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its latest report, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis, which provides a comprehensive assessment of the physical science of climate change.

This report from the IPCC is Working Group I’s (WGI) contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (6AR). Working Group I assesses the physical scientific basis of climate change. Among other things it covers humans’ influence on the climate system, extreme weather, and the current and future state of our climate.

Key takeaways from the report include:

• Faster warming:
  • Unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach.
  • Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are responsible for approximately 1.1°C of warming since 1850-1900, and finds that averaged over the next 20 years, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming.
• Every region facing increasing changes
  • In the coming decades climate changes will increase in all regions. For 1.5°C of global warming, there will be increasing heat waves, longer warm seasons and shorter cold seasons. At 2°C of global warming, heat extremes would more often reach critical tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health, the report shows.
  • Climate change is intensifying the water cycle and affecting rainfall patterns
  • Coastal areas will see continued sea level rise throughout the 21st century, contributing to more frequent and severe coastal flooding in low-lying areas and coastal erosion.
  • For cities, some aspects of climate change may be amplified, including heat (since urban areas are usually warmer than their surroundings), flooding from heavy precipitation events and sea level rise in coastal cities.
• Human influence on the past and future climate
  • The report also shows that human actions still have the potential to determine the future course of climate.

IPCC has provided regional factsheets outlining the impacts of climate change specific to regions. View Australasia’s regional fact sheet here

More information here