Climate Science
Science is a foundation for effective climate action. The best united science currently available provides a basis for building solutions, addressing impacts, and achieving climate justice and equity.
​
Listen to the best united science currently available
-
Science says urgent action is needed to address the climate crisis.
-
Each year scientists publish thousands of scientific papers on climate change.
-
These are assessed and summarised by the IPCC, an organisation of 195 governments.
-
IPCC provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and risks, and options to address it.
​
Science says climate change is already causing widespread impacts
-
According to the IPCC, human influence on the climate system is clear.
-
The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, snow and ice have diminished, sea levels have risen.
-
Many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia.
-
Climate changes has had widespread impacts on human and natural systems.
​
​
More warming threatens severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts
-
Continued emission will cause more warming and long-lasting changes in the climate system.
-
This increases likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems.
-
Heat waves will occur more often; extreme rainfall will become more intense; the ocean will continue to warm and acidify; sea levels will continue to rise.
-
Risks are generally greater for disadvantaged people and communities, and the risks of abrupt or irreversible changes increase as warming increases.
Addressing the crisis requires curbing pollution and enhancing resilience
-
Limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions in emissions.
-
Adaptation can reduce the risks of climate change impacts, but there are limits to its effectiveness, especially with more warming.
-
Adaptation and mitigation options can address climate change, but no option is sufficient alone.
-
Effective implementation depends on policies and cooperation at all scales and can be enhanced by linking adaptation and mitigation with other societal objectives.
Science provides a basis for climate justice and equity
-
Science is a foundation for limiting warming below 1.5°C and ensuring climate justice and equity.
-
Understanding science, and the assumptions underlying it, provides a basis for effective action to tackle the climate crisis at its root causes.
-
While natural science is unified on how climate change is happening and its impacts, social sciences often present different values and assumptions, and may point towards different solutions.
-
Science -- in combination with the values of equity and justice -- can help us to identify and take the actions needed to transform the current system, and create a society that lives in harmony with its fellow beings and the environment.
For more information see:
IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, Summary for Policymakers