Summarizing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report Synthesis Report Findings

Status and trends

In this latest report, the IPCC confirms that average global surface temperatures were 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher across 2011-2020 than 1850-1900. It concludes that human activities-principally greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that stem from unsustainable energy use, land use and land-use change, lifestyles and patterns of consumption and production-have caused this warming.

GHG emissions continue to grow. Average annual GHG emissions from 2010-2019 were higher than any previous decade. However, the growth rate in emissions during that decade was 40% lower than in the last decade.

Impacts and action

Global warming has had a pervasive effect on weather and climate extremes, adversely affecting food and water security, human health, economies, society and people. It has also caused substantial damages and increasingly irreversible losses across all ecosystem types.

International climate agreements, rising ambitions for climate action, growing public awareness and more affordable and accessible low-emission technologies are accelerating efforts to address climate change. However, there remains a large gap between current levels of adaptation and levels needed to reduce climate risks.

Most observed adaptation is fragmented, incremental, small-scale, sector-specific and focused on planning rather than implementation. Many adaptation initiatives also prioritize immediate and near-term climate risk reduction not transformational adaptation.

In vulnerable sectors, regions and social groups, systemic barriers such as lack of resources, insufficient community and industry engagement, lack of political commitment and a low sense of urgency, make adaptation even more challenging.