What are the impacts of a 1.5 degree Celsius increase in global temperatures? What greenhouse gas emissions would then still be possible? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) aims to provide answers to these questions by 2018 with a special report, following a decision by the IPCC Plenary Session in Nairobi.
The first global climate agreement adopted in Paris in December 2015 lays down the goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. With its adoption, this goal that has now been confirmed under international law. In addition, the agreement promises that efforts will be made to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change thus asked the IPCC to summarise the scientific knowledge regarding a global warming of 1.5 degrees in a special report.
This special report will provide scientific information on the impacts of a 1.5 degree increase in global temperatures.
In this context, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports fundamental research and model development as well as infrastructures for obtaining the necessary scientific knowledge, for example, programmes for cloud and precipitation processes in the climate system. Model systems for medium-term regional climate prognoses and extreme weather manifestations in the atmosphere will also be developed.
In addition, the IPCC Plenary Session decided to submit two more special reports on oceans and ice-covered regions and on land use by 2020. A special report on cities will be published in 2022.
The IPCC Plenary Session will decide on the structure of these reports in the coming months by means of an expert dialogue. The authors' work will begin in 2017 with contributions also coming from German experts.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a UN body that provides the foundations for scientifically-based decisions for policy-makers, however without proposing specific solutions or recommendations for action. The next IPCC Assessment Report is due to be published between 2021 and 2022. Professor Hans-Otto Pörtner from Germany is significantly involved as Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. The office of the IPCC Working Group II is being financed by the BMBF.