PRESS RELEASE—Monday, August 9, 2021
Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published the Working Group I Report for the 6th Assessment. The nearly 4,000-page report, endorsed by 195 governments and representing global scientific consensus, was described by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as “code red for humanity”.
The report found that major climate disruption is already happening, with impacts affecting every region around the world. Some of these impacts are irreparable, with vital natural capital already lost. The Arctic Ocean my be ice-free at least once in the next 3 decades. We will cross 1.5ºC of global average surface temperature rise between 2030 and 2040.
According to the most advanced science we have, only in the most ambitious scenario do we still have a chance to limit global heating to 1.5ºC at the end of the century. In that scenario, global heating will still rise to at least 1.6ºC, before coming back down, if all of the right choices are made as quickly and pervasively as possible.
CCI Executive Director Joe Robertson says:
The report from IPCC Working Group I, released today, raises the most unwavering and undeniable alarm yet on the threats we face from uncontrolled climate disruption.
As a global advocacy organization, we support citizen volunteer advocates in more than 70 countries. Many of them are already facing serious risks, related to weather, food, conflict, or economic stresses, driven by climate change. The most basic rights, and everyday access to quality of life and opportunity for people everywhere, are at stake.
What this report makes clear is that legitimacy itself will soon come to depend on how effectively a nation or an institution is able to stop making this global emergency worse.
The first installment of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report finds human activity has pushed Earth’s climate into a pattern of destabilization “unprecedented” for thousands of years. Atmospheric concentrations are now higher than they have been at any time since our species first came into existence.
Citizens’ Climate International exists to empower people of all backgrounds to actively participate in building political will for a livable climate future. To achieve that, we will need people in communities, civic leaders, national leaders, and business, to work together to ensure policy, practice, investment, and our everyday aspirations, all align with a future that is healthy for people and for the natural systems we depend on.
- Read the CCI-supported Resilience Intel brief on the Working Group I report here.
- Read more about CCI’s work toward COP26 here.
- Access all of the IPCC’s AR6 resources here.
To follow up on this press release, contact press(at)citizensclimateintl(dot)org
