Linked below is a document containing my key takeaways from the recent contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report.

I wrote this because the recent release from the IPCC is 1300 pages long. That’s a lot. The shorter, more succinct Summary for Policymakers (SPM) is 42 pages long. That’s still quite dense for anyone not particularly science-savvy. This document highlights key quotes and figures from the SPM, so that you can get a grasp of the key findings quickly. It’s only 10 pages, including the introduction.

It’s important to note that the recent release is not the entire report. It’s the findings of Working Group 1, the physical science group. Further reports will come out early next year from the Impacts and the Policy groups. For more info on how the report structure works, see this excellent thread by climate researcher Dr. Lisa Schipper.

Final disclaimer, I want to highlight the fact that these are MY key takeaways from the report. I was in no way part of the team that put this report together, rather I write this as a) someone who has spent the last four and half years studying climate change impacts and b) a father concerned for the world his son will have to live in. 

Anything I think is particularly important is in bold. Anything that is not a direct quote is in italics. All figure captions are my interpretations.

If you want more detail, I strongly encourage you to read the Summary for Policymakers (SPM). I’m happy to help you understand it to the best of my abilities. I also welcome feedback, as always you can contact me via the website or via Twitter.

And lastly, thanks to the hundreds of scientists who put the report together. I hope more of the world starts listening to you over the coming years.

Link below.

Key Takeaways From The Summary For Policymakers Of The IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report

Citation: IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S. L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M. I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J.B.R. Matthews, T. K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. In Press.

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Dr. Sam Perrin is a freshwater ecologist who completed his PhD at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and is currently working as a climate data analyst at Ducky AS. You can read more about his research and the rest of the Ecology for the Masses writers here, see more of his work at Ecology for the Masses here, or follow him on Twitter here.

Title Image Credit: Pixabay, Pixabay licence, Image Cropped