The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing and evaluating the state of the world in terms of climate change, recently released its sixth assessment report. This report is a fully comprehensive evaluation of mass amounts of science and research that is packaged into seventeen chapters and almost 3,000 total pages. It covers current trends and how they are predicted to continue in the future. Emission data is examined across a number of different domains, including agriculture, energy, urban systems, transportation, and more. Of course, there is also a heavy focus on the negative impacts that these trends are already having and the multitude of possible future detriments. A number of the later chapters of the report focus on potential policy changes that can be made in order to mitigate the potential risks, both at the global level and on smaller scales. However, there is a large focus on international collaboration and consistency in order for the changes to be the most effective.

The goal that the proposals aim to reach is limiting the effects of global warming to an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Humans have already raised the temperature by about 1.1 degrees, primarily because of fossil fuel usage. Although there was a significant decrease in emissions during the COVID-19 pandemic resulting from much lower rates of transportation and manufacturing, levels have been spiking recently in the post-pandemic world. The United Nations is now referring to the current climate situation as “an emergency.” Scientists are adamant about the fact that every fraction of a degree is extremely significant at this point, and the more we can do to get to net-zero emissions, the better.

A major focus of the policy suggestions in the report is the transition to clean and sustainable energy. Keeping the temperature below the 1.5 C degree level would require fossil fuel emissions to peak in 2025 and decrease by 43% by the end of the decade. This would require a significant increase in the amount of our energy coming from renewable sources like wind, solar, nuclear, and geothermal. There is also the possibility of storing carbon either underground or underwater with the use of facilities that have the technology to capture and convert the excess Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere into something that can be more easily stored. There are plans for one of these facilities to be built in Scotland by 2026, and research is actively being done into placing them in other parts of the world. In my research lab, I’m currently helping a team that is looking at the possibility of placing one of these facilities in the Chesapeake Bay that would store the Carbon Dioxide in the water.

While the IPCC’s report should serve as a wake-up call, many of the largest difficulties with solving the climate crisis center more around overcoming political opposition as opposed to the inability to solve it from a scientific standpoint. There is also the issue of people considering it to be an issue in the distant future that they do not have to attend to now, but rising sea levels and more frequent and more severe weather events are beginning to make people take the issue more seriously and increase their sense of urgency. The report does overall present an optimistic viewpoint, with the rate of growth of emissions continuing to flatten out, and presents a plan for the future that is beginning to appear more and more achievable with increasing technology.