hide
Free keywords:
-
Abstract:
The IPCC Assessment Reports offer the scientific foundation for international climate negotiations
and constitute an unmatched resource for climate change researchers. However, the assessment
cycles take multiple years. As a contribution to cross- and interdisciplinary understanding across
diverse climate change research communities, we have streamlined an annual process to identify
and synthesise essential research advances. We collected input from experts on different fields using
an online questionnaire and prioritised a set of ten key research insights with high policy relevance.
This year we focus on: (1) looming overshoot of the 1.5°C warming limit, (2) urgency of phasing-out
fossil fuels, (3) challenges for scaling carbon dioxide removal, (4) uncertainties regarding the future of
natural carbon sinks, (5) need for join governance of biodiversity loss and climate change, (6)
advances in the science of compound events, (7) mountain glacier loss, (8) human immobility in the
face of climate risks, (9) adaptation justice, and (10) just transitions in food systems. We first present
a succinct account of these Insights, reflect on their policy implications, and offer an integrated set of
policy relevant messages. This science synthesis and science communication effort is also the basis
for a report targeted to policymakers as a contribution to elevate climate science every year, in time
for the UNFCCC COP.
