WEBVTT - Why the new IPCC report is so important

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Zero. I'm Oscar Boyd. On Monday, yet another

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<v Speaker 1>dire climate report was published, and yet again it was

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<v Speaker 1>published in the middle of a whole set of crises

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<v Speaker 1>that have dominated the new cycle. So we wanted to

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<v Speaker 1>take a moment to recognize the importance of this report

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<v Speaker 1>that's come out from the inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change,

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<v Speaker 1>better known as the IPCC. I'm here with Acharati, our

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<v Speaker 1>usual host, late in our podcast studio in London, to

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<v Speaker 1>talk about it. Actually, let's start with the basics. What

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<v Speaker 1>is the IPCC and what are these reports it producers.

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<v Speaker 1>The IPCC was created under the United Nations and it

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<v Speaker 1>was mandated as a body made up of scientists to

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<v Speaker 1>produce regular reports that will tell the world about the

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<v Speaker 1>state of our understanding of climate change. As these reports

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<v Speaker 1>have come every seven years or so, our understanding has improved,

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<v Speaker 1>has become firmer. We know better than ever what causes

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<v Speaker 1>climate change, what kind of impacts climate change is going

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<v Speaker 1>to have at a very granular level, and what we

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<v Speaker 1>need to do to address this problem so that we

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<v Speaker 1>can minimize the impacts and even adapt to the warming

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<v Speaker 1>that has already occurred. As a result, these reports have

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<v Speaker 1>gotten longer and longer and longer. Right in today's report

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<v Speaker 1>is the culmination of the sixth Sense of Reports. It's

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<v Speaker 1>called the Synthesis Report, and it's built upon this wealth

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<v Speaker 1>of knowledge that you're talking about. How much scientific knowledge

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<v Speaker 1>has gone into this report. Well, today's report is only

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<v Speaker 1>thirty seven pages long, but that's because it's a summary

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<v Speaker 1>of the entire sixth Assessment Report, which is about ten

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<v Speaker 1>thousand pages long. That in itself is based on nearly

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<v Speaker 1>fifty thousand scientific studies. So one way to think about

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<v Speaker 1>what the IPCC does is it creates the most established

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<v Speaker 1>and rigorously fact checked body of knowledge that exists on

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<v Speaker 1>climate change, and it gets signed off at least the summary,

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<v Speaker 1>by every country on the planet. So today's report, every

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<v Speaker 1>country has come together, looked at it, read it over.

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<v Speaker 1>Their delegates have gone through the details and said, okay,

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<v Speaker 1>we agree, we understand, and we're happy to publish this

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<v Speaker 1>with our names on it. Indeed, and that is unique

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<v Speaker 1>in the history of modern science, going hundreds of years back.

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<v Speaker 1>There is no other topic or science that countries of

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<v Speaker 1>the world come together and approve that this is what

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<v Speaker 1>is happening to the world, and this is what we

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<v Speaker 1>must do to address the problems. Aside from being unique,

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<v Speaker 1>why is this report actually important? What kind of real

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<v Speaker 1>world impacts did these reports have? These are reports of

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<v Speaker 1>such length and depth that they play a role in

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<v Speaker 1>all kinds of things, big and small. One clear example

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<v Speaker 1>is an IPCC report that was published in twenty eighteen.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a report, again commissioned by the United Nations

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<v Speaker 1>after the Paris Agreement was signed, that asked scientists to

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<v Speaker 1>tell the world what needs to be done to keep

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<v Speaker 1>global warming below one point five degree celsius, which is

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<v Speaker 1>one of the two goals in the Paris Agreement. And

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<v Speaker 1>what did it say? It is a bit academic, I'll

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<v Speaker 1>give you that, but to paraphrase, it basically said that

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<v Speaker 1>if the world is to keep global warming below one

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<v Speaker 1>point five degree celsius, it needs to reach net zero

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<v Speaker 1>carbon dioxide emissions by twenty fifty And that has become

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<v Speaker 1>a rallying cry where every major economy has now set

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<v Speaker 1>a net zero target, and every major corporation is working

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<v Speaker 1>towards a net zero target, and it's an everyday use

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<v Speaker 1>to the extent where of course, this climate podcast is

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<v Speaker 1>named after that very important sentence published in an IPCC report.

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<v Speaker 1>So today's report. What are the key takeaways? The biggest

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<v Speaker 1>takeaway is a blunt message, which is that burning fossil

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<v Speaker 1>fuels without trapping its emissions is threatening human well being

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<v Speaker 1>and the stability of much of life on Earth. And

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<v Speaker 1>the scale of the problem is massive. Already, ACC says

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<v Speaker 1>that three billion people are highly vulnerable to climate impacts.

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<v Speaker 1>That's nearly half the population of the planet, and that's

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<v Speaker 1>just at one point one degree celsius. However, it's not

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<v Speaker 1>just the dire stuff that these IPCC reports point out.

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<v Speaker 1>They also say that there is a real chance to

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<v Speaker 1>try and tackle this problem. Michaelleague Eric Croston says to

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<v Speaker 1>be able to solve climate change, we need a million miracles,

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<v Speaker 1>but the fact is over the past decade we've got

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<v Speaker 1>at least a few thousand. All kinds of green technologies

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<v Speaker 1>have become cheaper, are becoming more widely accessible. Of course,

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<v Speaker 1>on policy level, we've seen things like the Inflation Reduction

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<v Speaker 1>Act from the US and the Green Deal from Europe,

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<v Speaker 1>and all that can be leveraged because the faster we

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<v Speaker 1>cut emissions, the less pain the planet will suffer. Right,

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<v Speaker 1>And this really comes through in this report because as

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<v Speaker 1>we talked about it, is a synthesis of three other longer,

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<v Speaker 1>bigger reports. The first one that came out back in

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<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty one, was all about the physical science basis

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<v Speaker 1>behind climate change. The second was about impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability,

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<v Speaker 1>but the third was all about mitigation of climate change,

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<v Speaker 1>which goes into these issues what mitigation means, and the

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<v Speaker 1>more recent IPCC reports have also started to go beyond

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<v Speaker 1>just explaining what climate science says. Tackling climate change requires

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<v Speaker 1>appending and moving to an energy system that does not

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<v Speaker 1>cause global warming, and that level of change requires understanding

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<v Speaker 1>how the messy geopolitics of the energy transition will work out,

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<v Speaker 1>how humans will react to rapid changes, and it requires

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<v Speaker 1>sociologists and political scientists and all kinds of other fields

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<v Speaker 1>to weigh in on what will be a difficult transition.

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<v Speaker 1>Do all those things, and what the IPCC reports find

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<v Speaker 1>is that many of these solutions that address climate change

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<v Speaker 1>also have co benefits in improving health outcomes for people

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<v Speaker 1>and for biodiversity on the planet. What picture does the

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<v Speaker 1>report paint in terms of the levels of jeopardy the

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<v Speaker 1>climate change is currently posing humanity? I mean, clearly, if

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<v Speaker 1>you read it with a cold rational head, you will

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<v Speaker 1>walk away with your hair on fire, because that is

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<v Speaker 1>how urgent the situation is, you walk away with your

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<v Speaker 1>hair on fire, that you must do something about it.

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<v Speaker 1>Because it says there are many, many possible pathways still

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<v Speaker 1>available for humans to act on the problem before it's

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<v Speaker 1>too late. However, that doesn't always translate into policy at

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<v Speaker 1>the government level because there is usually a big upfront

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<v Speaker 1>effort and cost involved in deploying many of these solutions,

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<v Speaker 1>and for some governments that is too big a leap

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<v Speaker 1>to dig even today. So with that in mind, who

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<v Speaker 1>uses this report. Is it just the biggest, best, most

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<v Speaker 1>well fact checked body of scientific knowledge gathering dust in

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<v Speaker 1>a library somewhere, or is this being translated into usable

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<v Speaker 1>effective policies. Given the scale of the report and how

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<v Speaker 1>many things it touches on, it is being used and widely.

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<v Speaker 1>We talked about how IPCC reports have translated into net

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<v Speaker 1>zero goals. Now these are decades out, but there are

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<v Speaker 1>others who use it for immediate purposes. Corporations, for example,

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<v Speaker 1>take Unilever, a global company that produces food on one

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<v Speaker 1>part of the planet, processes it somewhere else, and then

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<v Speaker 1>sells it another place. That chain of events only works

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<v Speaker 1>because of the stability of the climate as it has

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<v Speaker 1>existed for the vast amount of human existence. Unilever has

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<v Speaker 1>been around for about one hundred years, and as a corporation,

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<v Speaker 1>would like to be around for another hundred years. So

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<v Speaker 1>Unilever looks at climate reports to understand the risks that

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<v Speaker 1>climate impacts are going to cost to its supply chain.

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<v Speaker 1>And that's just one of hundreds of thousands of corporations

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<v Speaker 1>that are making use of IPCC analysis. Then there are

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<v Speaker 1>investors who use IPCC reports because they use those models

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<v Speaker 1>to understand where to put money that would produce decent returns,

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<v Speaker 1>to put it in companies that are going to worsen

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<v Speaker 1>the climate crisis and make their entire portfolio unstable, or

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<v Speaker 1>to invest in companies that would solve this problem and

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<v Speaker 1>help the rest of the portfolio. Yeah, and it's not

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<v Speaker 1>just corporations investors looking at these reports either. It also

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<v Speaker 1>feeds into the work of NGOs, climate activists political campaigners

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<v Speaker 1>who are hoping to translate the messages of these big

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<v Speaker 1>impactful climate reports into something that can be understood by

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<v Speaker 1>the wider public, and they show up at public events

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<v Speaker 1>like the Annual Climate Conference. Again that happens under the

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<v Speaker 1>ages of the United Nations, where all these countries meet

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<v Speaker 1>to set policies on how to address all things climate change,

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<v Speaker 1>which go from not just how we cut emissions, but

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<v Speaker 1>also what investments do we need to make to adapt

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<v Speaker 1>to a warming planet and what do we need to

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<v Speaker 1>do if we are to compensate for the damages that

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<v Speaker 1>climate change is causing. That is all informed by this

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<v Speaker 1>underlying solid piece of science that the inter Governmental Panel

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<v Speaker 1>on Climate Change produces every seven years. Well, thank you

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<v Speaker 1>very much a chat for explaining today's IPCC report, and

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<v Speaker 1>thanks for staying up late to record this with me.

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<v Speaker 1>Thank you for listening to Zero. If you enjoyed this episode,

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<v Speaker 1>please take a moment to rate and review the show

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<v Speaker 1>on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This is the first time

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<v Speaker 1>we tried one of these bonus episodes, so let us

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<v Speaker 1>know what you think. You can email us at Zero

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<v Speaker 1>pod at Bloomberg dot Net. Zero's producer is me Oscar

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<v Speaker 1>Boyd and our senior producer is Christine driscoll. Our theme

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<v Speaker 1>music is composed by Wanderley Special Thanks to Kirabnjam and

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<v Speaker 1>Eric Roston for their help on this episode. We've linked

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<v Speaker 1>to Eric's reporting on the latest IPCC report in the

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<v Speaker 1>show notes. We'll be back with the regular episode of

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<v Speaker 1>Zero on Thursday. You want to be to