IPCC released Fifth Assessment Report on climate impacts on human and natural systems

UN report released on 30 March 2014 has warned that the increasing magnitude of global warning will have severe, pervasive and irreversible impact on the climate. The UN backed panel’s report was finalised by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

This comprehensive scientific and technical assessment on the impacts of climate change across the world was published after a weeklong intense discussion of scientists and officials in Yokohama, Japan. The meeting was held from 25 to 29 March 2014 and this report is based on more than 12000 peer-reviewed scientific studies.

The UN’s climate panel said that their report provides overwhelming evidence of the scale of these effects. The panel comprised of scientists’ feared that at present the impact is being witnessed or suffered by the Natural systems but this growth would also have worse impact on humans. The report in its summary has also claimed that this rise in temperatures will also threaten health, homes, food and safety.

The released document has highlighted the fact that amount of scientific evidence on the impacts of warming has almost doubled since the last report in 2007. The highlights have also stated facts like melting of glaciers or warming of permafrost. It states that the impact of the global warming has affected all the continents and oceans along with the impacts on natural and human systems on recent decades.

The summary document has outlined the impact of warming on the seas as well as on the freshwater systems and said that the oceans will become more acidic, which threatens the coral and other species that they harbor.

The most significant area that has been highlighted is Food security as this change in climate will hamper the production of crops like, wheat, rice and maize by 2050.

IPCC in September 2013 warned that the primarily humans are responsible for the global warming, which had led to rise in sea level than it was predicted earlier. The third report that will focus on mitigation of climate change is due for release in April in Berlin, Germany. The Synthesis Report (SYR) of the Fifth Assessment Report will be considered in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 27 to 31 October 2014.

Similar summit in 2015 will be held in Paris with a focus on creation of new international climate treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The first phase of the summit came to an end in 2012

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading scientific international body for the assessment of climate change and was established under the auspices of the United Nations (UN). It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 with an aim to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. In the same year, the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC.
 
• IPCC chairman - Rajendra Pachauri
• Lead Author of the study – Dr Saleemul Huq
• Co-author of the Report - Maggie Opondo of the University of Nairobi  
• Secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization - Michel Jarraud