The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years. The first part of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) by Working Group I, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021. The Working Group II contribution, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, was released on 28 February 2022, and the last part, the Working Group III report on Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, was released on 4 April 2022.
The reports show that there are dramatic difference in the consequences between different paths humanity could follow. The window for a climate-resilient development is, however, narrowing rapidly and world-wide action turned out to be even more urgent than previously assessed. Missing the necessary action leads to practically irreversible degradation of ecosystems and as a consequence to high risks through natural and social disaster on this globe.
Being a careful and comprehensive review of the relevant reviewed literature and including the world's most comprehensive climate projection based on earth system models, this body of work is highly relevant for many of BOKU's scientists. To ease the use of the material, it has been made locally available by the Institute of Meteorology and Climatology (see below).
Links:
Speech of UN Secretary-General António Guterres: https://www.un.org/press/en/2022/sgsm21228.doc.htm
All reports and materials can be downloaded at https://www.ipcc.ch/reports/
See also the information released by the CCCA.
Members of the Water, Atmosphere and Environment department can find all materials on the department's Novell storage under Dep_all/IPCC_AR6_Report.
Members of other departments and the public can download a1.2 GB zip-File with the same content and unzip it e.g. on their department's novell storage.The link to the .zip-file can be found here: https://homepage.boku.ac.at/seibert/ipcc_ar6_readme.html