The IPCC Assessment Report states: “Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying”

The IPCC Assessment Report states: “Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying”
The Sixth Assessment Report cover. IPCC official website.

Author: Veronika Sherova, 

Environment and Human Rights researcher,
Global Human Rights Defense.

On August 9, the world's leading climate scientists submitted the first report of the current

assessment cycle of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The other three reports are due to be published next year. The IPCC provides the scientific basis for policy decisions at all levels and for the upcoming negotiations at the United Nations Climate Conference in November.

The report highlights the worsening climate crisis and emphasizes that climate change is not just about temperature, but also about more intense rainfall and associated flooding, more intense droughts in many regions, rising sea levels and more frequent and severe coastal flooding, loss of seasonal snowpack, melting of glaciers and ice sheets, and more. These serious changes will increase with global warming and have devastating effects on people's lives.

Human rights and the environment are closely linked: a safe, clean and

sustainable environment is essential for the enjoyment of human rights. Governments have a

crucial role to play in combating climate change. According to the report, the target set in the Paris Agreement will be beyond reach in 20 years unless "there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions".
For further consideration:


The official web-site of the IPP Sixth Assessment Report, https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/;

IPCC Press Release, August 2021, https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/;

CNBC, Landmark U.N. report delivers stark warning on climate change, says it’s ‘code red for
humanity’, August 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/09/ipcc-report-un-climate-reportdelivers-starkest-warning-yet.html;

BBC News, Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity', August 2021,

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58130705.