IPCC Fifth Assessment Report
The Fifth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the fifth in a series of such reports. The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change, its potential effects and options for adaptation and mitigation.
The Fifth Assessment Report was finalized in 2014. As had been the case in the past, the outline of the AR5 was developed through a scoping process which involved climate change experts from all relevant disciplines and users of IPCC reports, in particular representatives from governments. Governments and organizations involved in the Fourth Report were asked to submit comments and observations in writing with the submissions analysed by the panel. The report was delivered in stages, starting with Working Group I's report on the physical science basis, based on 9,200 peer-reviewed studies. The summaries for policy makers were released on 27 September 2013 for the first report, on 31 March 2014 for the second report entitled "Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability", and on 14 April 2014 for the third report entitled "Mitigation of Climate Change". The Synthesis Report was released on 2 November 2014, in time to pave the way for negotiations on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris during late 2015.
Current status
The Fifth Assessment Report consists of three Working Group Reports and a Synthesis Report. The first Working Group Report was published in 2013 and the rest were completed in 2014.- WG I: The Physical Science Basis – 30 September 2013, Summary for Policymakers published 27 September 2013.
- WG II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability – 31 March 2014
- WG III: Mitigation of Climate Change – 15 April 2014
- AR5 Synthesis Report – 2 November 2014
More than 800 authors, selected from around 3,000 nominations, were involved in writing the report. Lead authors' meetings and a number of workshops and expert meetings, in support of the assessment process, were held. A schedule of AR5 related meetings, review periods, and other important dates was published.
On 14 December 2012, drafts of the Working Group 1 report were leaked and posted on the Internet. The release of the summary for policymakers occurred on 27 September 2013. Halldór Thorgeirsson, a UN official, warned that, because big companies are known to fund the undermining of climate science, scientists should be prepared for an increase in negative publicity at the time. "Vested interests are paying for the discrediting of scientists all the time. We need to be ready for that," he said.
Marking the finalization of the Physical Science Basis UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addressed the IPCC at Stockholm on 27 September 2013. He stated that "the heat is on. We must act". Jennifer Morgan, from the World Resources Institute, said "Hopefully the IPCC will inspire leadership, from the Mom to the business leader, to the mayor to the head of state." US Secretary of State John Kerry responded to the report saying "This is yet another wakeup call: those who deny the science or choose excuses over action are playing with fire."
Authors and editors
In March 2010, the IPCC received approximately 3,000 author nominations from experts around the world. At the bureau session held in Geneva, 19–20 May 2010, the three working groups presented their selected authors and review editors for the AR5. Each of the selected scientists, specialists and experts was nominated in accordance with IPCC procedures, by respective national IPCC focal-points, by approved observer organizations, or by the bureau. The IPCC received 50% more nominations of experts to participate in AR5 than it did for AR4. A total of 559 authors and review editors had been selected for AR4 from 2,000 proposed nominees. On 23 June 2010 the IPCC announced the release of the final list of selected coordinating lead authors, comprising 831 experts who were drawn from fields including meteorology, physics, oceanography, statistics, engineering, ecology, social sciences and economics. In comparison to the Fourth Assessment Report, participation from developing countries was increased, reflecting the ongoing efforts to improve regional coverage in the AR5. About 30% of authors came from developing countries or economies in transition. More than 60% of the experts chosen were new to the IPCC process, bringing fresh knowledge and perspectives.Climate change 2013: report overview
On 23 June 2010, the IPCC announced the release of the final list of selected coordinating lead authors, comprising 831 experts. The working group reports would be published during 2013 and 2014. These experts would also provide contributions to the Synthesis Report published in late 2014.The Fifth Assessment Report would be released in four distinct sections:
- Working Group I Report : Focusing on the physical science basis and including 258 experts.
- Working Group II Report : Assessing the impacts, adaptation strategies and vulnerability related to climate change and involving 302 experts.
- Working Group III Report : Covering mitigation response strategies in an integrated risk and uncertainty framework and its assessments carried out by 271 experts.
- The Synthesis Report : Final summary and overview.
Working group I contribution
Summary for Policymakers
A concise overview of Working Group I's findings was published as the Summary for Policymakers on 27 September 2013. The level of confidence in each finding was rated on a confidence scale, qualitatively from very low to very high and, where possible, quantitatively from exceptionally unlikely to virtually certain.| Term | Likelihood of the outcome |
| Virtually certain | 99–100 % probability |
| Extremely likely | 95–100 % probability |
| Very likely | 90–100 % probability |
| Likely | 66–100 % probability |
| More likely than not | 50–100 % probability |
| About as likely as not | 33 to 66% probability |
| Unlikely | 0–33 % probability |
| Very unlikely | 0–10 % probability |
| Extremely unlikely | 0–5 % probability |
| Exceptionally unlikely | 0–1 % probability |
The principal findings were:
General
- Warming of the atmosphere and ocean system is unequivocal. Many of the associated impacts such as sea level change have occurred since 1950 at rates unprecedented in the historical record.
- There is a clear human influence on the climate
- It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of observed warming since 1950, with the level of confidence having increased since the fourth report.
- IPCC pointed out that the longer we wait to reduce our emissions, the more expensive it will become.
Historical climate metrics
- It is likely that 1983–2013 was the warmest 30-year period for 1,400 years.
- It is virtually certain the upper ocean warmed from 1971 to 2010. This ocean warming accounts, with high confidence, for 90% of the energy accumulation between 1971 and 2010.
- It can be said with high confidence that the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass in the last two decades and that Arctic sea ice and Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover have continued to decrease in extent.
- There is high confidence that the sea level rise since the middle of the 19th century has been larger than the mean sea level rise of the prior two millennia.
- Concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased to levels unprecedented on earth in 800,000 years.
- Total radiative forcing of the earth system, relative to 1750, is positive and the most significant driver is the increase in 's atmospheric concentration.
Models
- Climate models have improved since the prior report.
- Model results, along with observations, provide confidence in the magnitude of global warming in response to past and future forcing.
Projections
- Further warming will continue if emissions of greenhouse gases continue.
- The global surface temperature increase by the end of the 21st century is likely to exceed 1.5 °C relative to the 1850 to 1900 period for most scenarios, and is likely to exceed 2.0 °C for many scenarios
- The global water cycle will change, with increases in disparity between wet and dry regions, as well as wet and dry seasons, with some regional exceptions.
- The oceans will continue to warm, with heat extending to the deep ocean, affecting circulation patterns.
- Decreases are very likely in Arctic sea ice cover, Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover, and global glacier volume
- Global mean sea level will continue to rise at a rate very likely to exceed the rate of the past four decades
- Changes in climate will cause an increase in the rate of production. Increased uptake by the oceans will increase the acidification of the oceans.
- Future surface temperatures will be largely determined by cumulative, which means climate change will continue even if emissions are stopped.
Other
Climate model simulations in support of AR5 use a different approach to account for increasing greenhouse gas concentrations than in the previous report. Instead of the scenarios from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios the models are performing simulations for various Representative Concentration Pathways.Public debate after the publication of AR4 in 2009 put the IPCC under scrutiny, with controversies over alleged bias and inaccuracy in its reports. In 2010, this prompted U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and IPCC chair Rajendra K. Pachauri to request that the InterAcademy Council review the IPCC and recommend ways to strengthen its processes and procedures for the preparation of AR5. The IAC report made recommendations to fortify IPCC's management structure, to further develop its conflict-of-interest policy, to strengthen the review process, to clarify the guidelines on the use of so-called gray literature, to ensure consistency in the use of probabilities for the likelihood of outcomes, and to improve its communications strategy especially regarding transparency and rapidity of response.
Current documents
- Working Group I: – – – –
- Working Group II: – , – –
- Working Group III: – – –
- Synthesis Report: – – –
Condensed versions
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Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C