the next IPCC synthesis, planned for 2029, will focus on adaptation

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced that its 7th work cycle would give significant attention to the issue of adaptation to the rise in global average temperatures, the cause of more climate calamities. numerous, more frequent and more intense.

No matter how fast the climate crisis progresses, the next IPCC summary will only be available in five years. The group of experts, mandated by the UN to synthesize all knowledge on climate, voted, on Saturday January 20, the program for its new work cycle, which will lead, in 2029, to the 7th climate report. summary of the state of the climate. Gathered in Istanbul, Turkey, “more than 300 delegates from 120 governments” adopted this program early in the morning, after four days of debate and an additional night of negotiations.

This cycle will “the accent (…) on adaptation to climate change”, declared Jim Skea, president of the IPCC, quoted in a press release. The experts will notably aim to establish indicators and new recommendations to measure adaptation efforts (to floods or drought via protective infrastructure, displacement of residences, a change in agriculture, etc.)

A crucial decade

In December, a first global assessment was adopted by the international community meeting at COP28 in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). Despite significant concessions to the oil states, this agreement opened the way to phasing out fossil fuels, the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities and, as such, responsible for warming the average temperature of the globe.

According to scientific consensus, greenhouse gas emissions must fall by 43% between 2019 and 2030, to hope to limit global warming to +1.5°C since the pre-industrial era, as provided for by the agreement of Paris.

Interim reports planned

For some scientists, the urgency of mobilizing the international community is incompatible with the five-year period provided between two updates of scientific knowledge. The American NGO Union of Concerned Scientists deplored the fact that the 7th report was not ready in time to feed into the second global assessment of the Paris Agreement, planned for COP33, in 2028.

However, the program voted on Saturday provides for a series of interim reports between now and the end of the new cycle. A special report on “climate change and cities” and another on the incipient and controversial methods of CO2 capture, are also planned.