Response to IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report and What You Can Do

‘Code Red for Humanity’ — the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, published August 2021. Unless there are immediate rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5°C will be beyond reach.

Key findings

We’ve already heated the planet to 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels — and it’s humankind that’s responsible. We will reach 1.5°C in the next 20 years. Even if we slash emissions immediately, heating will continue due to baked-in effects. Some changes such as sea level rises are irreversible. In Madagascar (0.01% of global emissions), climate change has led to catastrophic drought with up to 500,000 marching towards starvation.

What can you do?

Set your company’s science-based carbon reduction targets and draw up a carbon reduction strategy. Support campaigns to increase subsidies for renewables, electric vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure. Write to your MP calling for an actionable decarbonisation plan. If we implement immediate, rapid reductions, we can still limit heating — and every fraction of a degree we claw back will make a difference.