COP27: "10 New Insights in Climate Science 2022" released

screenshot: "10 New Insights in Climate Science 2022" (Future Earth, the Earth League, WCRP)

Today, the 10 New Insights in Climate Science 2022 were presented at the 27th World Climate Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. A GERICS scientist was involved in writing and coordinating a chapter of this report.

The 10 New Insights in Climate Science report is a joint initiative of Future Earth, the Earth League, and the World Climate Research Programme. The annual series synthesizes the latest climate change related research for the international science-policy community. Since 2017, installments have been launched annually at the Climate COP with the UNFCCC Executive Secretary.

The 2022 report was prepared by a consortium of 65 leading researchers from 23 countries and responds to clear calls for policy guidance during this climate-critical decade. The authors emphasize and unpack the complex interactions between climate change and other drivers of risk, such as conflicts, pandemics, food crises and underlying development challenges in the report.

The scientific synthesis identifies that the potential to adapt to climate change is not limitless. Rising sea levels capable of submerging coastal communities and extreme heat intolerable to the human body, are examples of ‘hard’ limits to our ability to adapt. It also highlights that over 3 billion people will inhabit ‘vulnerability hotspots’ - areas with the highest susceptibility to being adversely affected by climate-driven hazards - by 2050, double what it is today.

The report further outlines that persistent dependence on fossil fuels exacerbates major vulnerabilities, notably for energy and food security, and that deep and swift mitigation to tackle the drivers of climate change is immediately necessary to avert and minimise future loss and damage.

GERICS is engaged in the 10 New Insights in Climate Science 2022 through its direct support for the Earth League. GERICS' scientist Gaby Langendijk served as a writer-coordinator for the insight 1 about "Questioning the myth of endless adaptation".

Please find the Executive Summary of "10 New Insights in Climate Science 2022" here (7,5 MB)