Landmark UN climate report ‘agreed’ after negotiations blow past deadline

Scientists and government officials have reportedly reached agreement on the third chapter of a definitive United Nations’ climate assessment after negotiations overran the deadline.

The latest installment of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report – exploring how to reduce the severity of climate impacts around the world – is expected to be made public on Monday.

The international talks were supposed to wrap up on 1 April but continued over the weekend as delegates went line-by-line through the report, which cannot be published until consensus is reached.

Late on Sunday, Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, an IPCC vice chair, tweeted: “We almost have an #IPCC WG3 #AR6 report! The authors, Bureau, TSU and Secretariat have done a tremendous job!”

He also noted that it was the longest approval process in the 34-year history of the IPCC.

Dr Alaa Al Khourdajie, an IPCC senior scientist and part of the third chapter’s working group, also wrote: “WHITE SMOKE!!! The last sentence of the @IPCC_CH WGIII AR6 Report has been just approved! After a more than 24hs marathon!!!”

The IPCC report looks at ways for the world to stay within the bounds of the increasingly ambitious 1.5C temperature limit set out by the Paris Agreement. The 2015 pact aims to cap global heating at 1.5C (2.7F) this century.

The planet has already warmed around 1.1C since pre-industrial times, with the increased global heat unleashing a wave of triple-digit temperatures, droughts, intense storms, wildfires and sea level rise around the world.

The climate crisis is largely driven by the greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels with scientists calling for a drawdown in use to prevent even more catastrophic impacts in the coming decades.

This IPCC chapter focuses on mitigation – how to reduce the painful impacts of the climate crisis, particularly for those in countries in the global south who are already facing extreme threats.

Delegates have been looking at the wide-scale systemic transformations that are needed to limit emissions, particularly when it comes to fossil fuel infrastructure, along with boosting adaptation measures and ramping up sustainable development.

Among the sticking points was reportedly insistence from representatives of major emerging economies that their right to development be recognised.

Several observers told The Associated Press that India was a key voice pushing for recognition in the report that developing countries have contributed a far smaller share of the carbon emissions already in the atmosphere than industrialised nations, and should therefore not need to make the same steep cuts.

Others, such as oil exporter Saudi Arabia, argue that fossil fuels will still be needed for decades to come and phasing them out too quickly could hurt the world’s poorest.

The IPCC report will provide a basis for international talks like Cop27, the climate summit being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, this November.

In August, the first IPCC chapter dealt with the physical science of climate change. The assessment found that it was “unequivocal” that climate change is human-caused, widespread and intensifying.

The second chapter was published last month and found that half the planet is highly vulnerable to the climate crisis, with impacts arriving faster than previously expected.

AP contributed to this report