GreenReads: IPCC 6th assessment report: New dire European State of the Climate report

By Willy De Backer - European Trade Union Institute, May 2, 2023

IPCC 6th assessment report – synthesis

On 20 March 2023, climate scientists published another ‘last warning’ on the climate emergency. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the synthesis report of its 6th assessment on the state of the global climate crisis. This synthesis draws together all the main findings of the three working group reports which were already published in 2021 and 2022.

The IPCC press release points to the fact that greenhouse gas emissions are still rising globally, and demands more ambitious actions to secure a ‘liveable future for all’. For a longer summary of the main messages of this synthesis report, read the analyses by Carbon Brief and the World Resources Institute.

Despite these scientifically alarming reports, the IPCC’s political impact in terms of real effective climate policies remains extremely low and therefore every cycle of reports leads to a more fundamental critique of the organisation’s way of working.

Hereunder, a collection of links to some of the critical articles we found on this new IPCC report:

• The Conversation: IPCC’s conservative nature masks true scale of action needed to avert catastrophic climate change
• Inside Climate News: Corporate Interests ‘Watered Down’ the Latest IPCC Climate Report, Investigations Find
• European Green Journal: Why the IPCC Can’t Escape Climate Politics
• The Nation: The Media’s Recent Turn to “Climate Optimism” Is a Cruel Fantasy
• Carbon Copy: IPCC’s climate reports reveal an unequal science

New dire State of the Climate report

The EU’s Climate Change Service Copernicus released its annual European State of the Climate report for the year 2022. Read the summary of the report and take a look at the interesting infographics page of climate indicators.

Key findings:

• Europe experienced the hottest summer on record with extreme heat waves, wildfires, widespread droughts, and huge ice loss from glaciers in the Alps.
• Temperatures in Europe are rising at twice the global average rate.

In a related development, climate experts are also drawing attention to the return of the El Nino climate pattern, which might lead to even more extreme weather events in 2023.

Further reading:

• Guardian: ‘Frightening’: record-busting heat and drought hit Europe in 2022
• Reuters: World could face record temperatures in 2023 as El Nino returns
• Axios: Rapidly developing El Niño set to boost global warming

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author.