The recently released IPCC report labelled climate change ‘irreversible’, and said that India will witness more cyclonic activities, heatwaves and more. For the unversed, IPCC is United Nation’s Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change which annually publishes reports which has the most comprehensive climate change assessment backed by data and figures.
Details
In an alarming emergence, the UN’s IPCC report stated that the Indian subcontinent will receive intense heatwaves, more intense rainfall events and further cyclonic activity. The report also stated that throughout the 21st century, intense heatwaves and humidity heat will be felt throughout the world. The report, published in collaboration with scientists of 195 governments, also said that the overall annual monsoon precipitation will be more during this entire century.
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What is the IPCC?
The IPCC – unlike claimed by many – does not carry out its own research and development. Rather, scientists from about 195 countries are roped in to go through scientific research related to climate change to then create a report on their conclusions. The IPCC was established in 1988.
The first ever assessment report by the IPCC was released back in 1990. Over the course of 3 decades, the UN-formed IPCC has published 6 reports, including the most recent one. It should be noted that the recently published report is the IPCC’s first part of the overall report.
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What does the 6th IPCC Report Say?
The first part of the 6th IPCC report is titled – “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis”. The report states that with its evidence, the next 20 years will see the global temperature to exceed 1.5 degrees of warming. To put this to perspective, the report stated, since 1850-1900, the temperature has increased 1.1 degrees. This reason has been cited greenhouse emissions.
The IPCC report in one of its detailed analysis stated-
“Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion – such as continued sea level rise – are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years”,
says a statement by the IPCC.
“However, strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases would limit climate change. While benefits for air quality would come quickly, it could take 20-30 years to see global temperatures stabilize,”
-it added.
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Okay, That Sounds Bad, But How Does it Affect India?
Pretty bad. In the likelihood, one may not feel the changes be evident in the next few years, but over the course of this generation, and the next few, changes across the entire Asian subcontinent will be felt. The major alarm comes with IPCC’s observations on monsoons.
As known to most, monsoons are directly related to the livelihood of India and its neighbouring country. For a country with over a billion people, the increase in decrease in the levels of monsoon can have drastic effects on the lives of those people.
An observation in the IPCC report stated-
“The South and Southeast Asian monsoon has weakened in the second half of the 20th century.”
Further, the report, in its observation, that was labelled “medium confidence” stated-
“In the long term, South and Southeast Asian monsoon and East Asian summer monsoon precipitation will increase.”
