What are the upcoming IPCC reports about the climate crisis?

The IPCC report issued a stark warning for humanity. What will further reports reveal about the climate crisis?

A flagship UN science report released in early August stated that no one is safe from the accelerating effects of climate change and there is an urgent need to prepare and protect people as extreme weather and rising seas hit harder than predicted.

The report Working Group I (The Physical Science Basis), from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was written by 234 scientists and states that global warming of about 1.1 degrees Celsius has brought many changes in different regions from more severe droughts and storms to rising seas.

Those will all increase with further warming, but it is not too late to cut climate-heating emissions to keep temperature rise to internationally agreed goals of "well below" 2C and ideally 1.5C - which would help stop or slow down some of the impacts, the report said.

However, the report is the first of three, each dealing with a different aspect of the looming climate crisis. The next two are Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability), and Working Group III (Mitigation of Climate Change).

There will also be a final IPCC report that draws together the information from all three reports.

The Synthesis Report will “synthesise and integrate materials contained within the Assessment Reports and Special Reports” and “should be written in a non-technical style suitable for policymakers and address a broad range of policy-relevant but policy-neutral questions”. It is set for release in September 2022.

Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability)

The IPCC Working Group II (WGII) assesses the impacts of climate change, from a world-wide to a regional view of ecosystems and biodiversity, and of humans and their different societies, cultures and settlements.

It considers their vulnerabilities and the capacities and limits of these natural and human systems to adapt to climate change and thereby reduce climate-associated risks.

The report also outlines options for creating a sustainable future for all through an “equitable and integrated approach to mitigation and adaptation efforts at all scales”.

The Working Group II report has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and is scheduled to be released on February 21 2022.

Working Group III (Mitigation of Climate Change)

The third report focuses on climate change mitigation, assessing methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Climate change mitigation is achieved by limiting or preventing greenhouse gas emissions and by enhancing activities that remove these gases from the atmosphere.

Greenhouse gases can come from a range of sources and climate mitigation can be applied across all sectors and activities, including energy, transport, buildings, industry, waste management, agriculture, forestry, and other forms of land management.

Working Group III will not advocate any specific mitigation options and takes both a near-term perspective relevant to decision-makers in government and the private sector and a long-term perspective that helps identify how high-level climate policy goals might be met.

Working Group III addresses all aspects of mitigation including technical feasibility, cost and the enabling environments that would allow measures to be taken up.

The Working Group III report is expected to be released in March 2022.