Climate Policy Updates - April 2022
IPCC released its 3rd report, focusing on climate change mitigation. The report assesses mitigation progress and pledges and presents the areas where urgent mitigation efforts are needed.
IPCC Working Group 3 report is published: If we act now we can halve emissions by 2030
At the beginning of April, the 3rd Working Group report, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of climate change, of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released. It is the third instalment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which will be completed this year. The report provides an updated global assessment of climate change mitigation progress and pledges and examines the sources of global emissions. It explains developments in emission reduction and mitigation efforts, assessing the impact of national climate pledges in relation to long-term emissions goals.
According to the report, limiting global warming will require major transitions in the energy sector. This will involve a substantial reduction in fossil fuel use, widespread electrification, improved energy efficiency, and the use of alternative fuels (such as hydrogen). "Having the right policies, infrastructure and technology in place to enable changes to our lifestyles and behaviour can result in a 40-70 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This offers significant untapped potential," said IPCC Working Group III Co-Chair Priyadarshi Shukla: "The evidence also shows that these lifestyle changes can improve our health and well-being." Agriculture, forestry, and other land use can provide large-scale emissions reductions and also remove and store carbon dioxide at scale. However, land cannot compensate for delayed emissions reductions in other sectors. Response options can benefit biodiversity, help us adapt to climate change, and secure livelihoods, food and water, and wood supplies.
In the scenarios that the WG researchers assessed, limiting warming to around 1.5° C requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43 % by 2030; at the same time, methane would also need to be reduced by about a third.
You can access the Summary for Policymakers here and the technical summary here. For the full report, click here.