IPCC Sixth Assessment Report

The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) is a comprehensive evaluation conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) under the aegis of the United Nations. This report represents the latest in the sequence of IPCC assessments, following the Fifth Assessment Report, and offers a critical analysis of current scientific, technical, and socio-economic information pertinent to the understanding of climate change.

Working Group Contributions

AR6 is divided into contributions from three Working Groups, as is customary with IPCC assessments:

Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis

Released on 9 August 2021, this section delineates the physical science underpinnings of climate change. It consolidates the latest findings on the state of the climate system, assessing aspects such as greenhouse gas concentrations, rising temperatures, and changes in ice cover. The report underscores the accelerated pace of warming and highlights that the 20-year average temperature is projected to exceed +1.5°C in the early 2030s.

Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability

This segment assesses the effects of climate change on ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It scrutinizes vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities, detailing the intricate relationship between climate impacts and socio-economic factors, such as standard of living and infrastructure resilience.

Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change

Focused on strategies to mitigate climate change, this section evaluates scenarios and technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It explores policy measures, economic instruments, and technological innovations that could be harnessed to achieve sustainable reductions in emissions worldwide.

Synthesis Report

The Synthesis Report provides an integrated view of the findings from the three Working Groups. Released on 20 March 2023, it aims to inform the 2023 Global Stocktake under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This report consolidates insights into a coherent narrative, underpinning the urgency of coordinated global action to address the climate crisis.

Socioeconomic Pathways and Future Projections

AR6 introduces Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, which are scenarios that project global socioeconomic changes up to the year 2100. These pathways help in deriving greenhouse gas emissions projections and evaluating potential climate change impacts under various socio-economic conditions.

Development and Global Collaboration

The development of the Sixth Assessment Report involved extensive international collaboration, with contributions from thousands of scientists and researchers globally. The groundwork for AR6 began with a preliminary scoping meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in May 2017, following a decision at the 41st Session of the IPCC in Nairobi, Kenya.