If you’re interested in environmental issues, you’ve probably already heard about a scientific report urging everyone (nations, people, industries, etc.) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to slow down global warming and limit the increase in Earth’s average temperature to within +1.5°C by the year 2100. How can we do it? By reducing new greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. Scientists call this “climate neutrality”: eliminating greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible, and finding a way to compensate for those that are still emitted. This goal is also included in the Paris Agreement, which was signed by 195 nations – so it concerns your country, too. A relatively recent discovery We’ve known how the greenhouse effect works since the mid-1800s, but it was only in the 1950s that large-scale scientific studies were launched to understand how the anthropogenic component of the greenhouse effect (i.e. the part caused by human activities, plus the pollution in the atmosphere, let’s not forget) was disrupting the climate. For a few years, the most scientifically advanced nations each carried out research on their own, but it was a huge amount of work. In 1972, the United Nations organized the first major conference in Stockholm to discuss the environment, and in the same year the Club of Rome, a group of academics led by Aurelio Peccei, published the book The Limits to Growth, also known as the Meadows Report, in honor of the young researcher Donella Meadows who, with the help of four colleagues (all just 26-27 years old!), produced the first systematic global study of the climate crisis. What was needed was some kind of alliance of all the world’s scientists. It took 15 years to organize, but in 1988, a new body was created: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was responsible for studying climate change. The IPCC has a mother and a father: the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The role of the IPCC: pushing for action The IPCC doesn’t conduct new research or monitor climate-related data and parameters; these tasks continue to be entrusted to national scientific bodies, almost all of which are public institutes. The IPCC collects, reviews and evaluates the latest scientific, technical and socio-economic information produced around the world by the Member States (the 195 nations of the UN), bringing together all this data in one place to understand climate change. The IPCC relies on the collaboration of thousands of researchers and produces a Report every 5 to 7 years. So far there have been 6 IPCC Reports and they’re all accessible online. They’re a synthesis of the research conducted around the world on just one topic: climate change, what’s causing it and what we can do about it. Basically, every Report improves and expands on the previous one and consists of two parts. One – made up of numerous thematic volumes, full of facts and figures, and written in complicated “science-ese” – is not so easy to read. The other is more interesting and accessible; it’s a summary of the Report that’s written especially for policymakers: heads of state, ministers, industrialists, bankers… but also the people who are responsible for the environment at a local level in small towns with just a few hundred inhabitants. The IPCC scientists want everyone to have access to the information in their report because everyone needs to know how the climate is changing, what impacts it’s having on places, society and human lives, and most importantly, that all of us can do something about it. The IPCC’s summary for policymakers (translated into lots of languages) is easy to read and you can read it, too!
