A new season for climate change science and praxis?

Abstract

I write these reflections at the end of the 27th Conference of Parties meeting of governments (COP27), held in Egypt in November 2022, at which governments sought to progress climate action. COP27 was informed by the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Established in 1988, the IPCC provides UN member nations with comprehensive assessments of the state of climate change science and its implications.

I spent much of 2017–2022 devoted to AR6. I was a Coordinating Lead Author of the chapter on sea-level rise in the IPCC’s Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (1), Lead Author of the chapter on Climate Resilient Development, and co-lead for the Cross-Chapter Paper on Cities and Settlements by the Sea, in the Working Group II report (2). How can I convey the gravitas of the climate predicament outlined in AR6? Moreover, where do we stand now – after more than three decades of intensive climate change science-policy interactions? What does this portend for climate change scientists, policy advisors and elected politicians? What does it mean for you and I? And how might answers to these questions inform our understanding about seasons; and how we might navigate impending dangerous climate change?