Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Why in News?

• A study recently titled “contradicted projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).,” states that the planet is likely to warm up by two degrees Celsius by 2050, even under a low-emission scenario.

Highlights

• There is a higher likelihood that 2°C will be reached under the low emission scenario compared with the IPCC AR6 (Sixth Assessment 
• Report) synthesis assessment, and may fail to uphold the Paris Agreement.
• The Paris Agreement aims to limit the rise to below 2°C while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.
• The IPCC estimated that the 1.5°C threshold could be attained as early as the 2030s under all emission scenarios.
• Global warming is already on the verge of crossing the 1.5°C threshold, even if the climate forcing pathway is substantially reduced in the near term.
• The threshold of 1.5°C will reach somewhere between 2033 and 2035 in the high, intermediate and low forcing scenarios.
• The world could touch 2°C by 2050 under the high-emission scenario, 2049 and 2054 in the intermediate and low-emission scenarios, respectively.
• In contrast, the IPCC estimated the likelihood of touching 2°C of global warming during the mid-21st century is high under a high-emission scenario.
• The researchers used artificial intelligence called Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to predict the time for reaching the 1.5 °C and 2°C thresholds.
• The world has recorded a 1.1°C rise in temperature compared with the average in 1850-1900. Limiting warming to 1.5°C will reduce the number of people frequently exposed to extreme heat waves by about 420 million.
• It can also reduce the probability of drought and risks related to water availability.
• Warming above the threshold of 1.5°C can cause a broad range of climate risks — such as impacts on human health, economic growth, crop yields, coastal and small island communities, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, as well as the frequency, intensity and cost of extreme climate events.