Climate Change - A Global Issue

The main activity of the IPCC is to, at regular intervals, provide Assessment Reports of the state of knowledge on climate change. The IPCC is now in its sixth assessment cycle, in which it is producing the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) with contributions by its three Working Groups and a Synthesis Report, three Special Reports, and a refinement to its latest Methodology Report.

The rate of climate change surged alarmingly between 2011 and 2020, which was the warmest decade on record. This report documents how extreme events across the decade had devastating impacts, particularly on food security, displacement and migration, hindering national development and progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But it also showed how improvements in forecasts, early warnings and coordinated disaster management and response are making a difference.

Since 2017, the Yearbook of Global Climate Action reviews the state and scope of climate action worldwide.

UNEP's annual Emissions Gap Report provides a scientific assessment of the mitigation contributions from the submitted INDCs and presents an assessment of current national mitigation efforts and the ambitions countries have presented in their Nationally Determined Contributions, which form the foundation of the Paris Agreement.

WMO's 2023 State of Climate Services report focuses on health. It highlights the need for tailored climate information and services to support the health sector in the face of more extreme weather and poor air quality, shifting infectious disease patterns and food and water insecurity.

The annual bulletin is based on observations from the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch Programme. These observations help to track the changing levels of greenhouse gases and serve as an early warning system for changes in these key atmospheric drivers of climate change.

The Production Gap Report — first launched in 2019 — tracks the discrepancy between governments’ planned fossil fuel production and global production levels consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C or 2°C. The 2023 report finds that governments plan to produce around  110% more fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C, and 69% more than would be consistent with 2°C.

United in Science is an annual, multi-organization, high-level compilation of the latest weather, climate and water-related sciences and services for sustainable development. The report combines input and expertise from 18 organizations, and it is coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

An IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems". It shows that better land management can contribute to tackling climate change, but is not the only solution.

This IPCC Special Report was approved on 24 September 2019 by the 195 IPCC member governments. It provides new evidence for the benefits of limiting global warming to the lowest possible level – in line with the goal that governments set themselves in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

With the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the UNFCCC requested that the IPCC produce a special report on “the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre–industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emissions pathways”. The report, known as SR1.5, assesses what a 1.5°C warmer world would look like, and also the different pathways by which global temperature rise could be limited to 1.5°C.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been working together since 2014 to support countries in developing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This report is the most detailed review yet of momentum since the Paris Agreement and was designed to both inspire and inform the UN Climate Action Summit on 23 September 2019.

The Global Climate in 2015–2019 is part of the WMO Statements in Climate providing authoritative information on the state of the climate and impacts. It was released as part of a high-level synthesis report from leading scientific institutions United in Science under the umbrella of the Science Advisory Group of the UN Climate Summit 2019.

This report provides an up-to-date overview of existing and emerging carbon pricing instruments around the world, including international, national and subnational initiatives. It also investigates trends surrounding the development and implementation of carbon pricing instruments and how they could accelerate the delivery of long-term mitigation goals. Specifically, this includes the use of carbon taxes, emissions trading systems and crediting mechanisms. International cooperation on carbon pricing and the status of work surrounding Article 6 of the Paris Agreement is also canvassed.