The Sixth Assessment Cycle (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will conclude in March 2023 with the release of a Synthesis Report (SYR) and Summary for Policymakers (SPM). This assessment cycle covers six major reports that the IPCC has released since 2014.
Lost in Translation, a joint analysis produced by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, is intended as a metric and counterpoint to weigh the IPCC’s AR6 SYR SPM against the underlying AR6 reports to highlight findings that are essential to understanding the climate actions necessary to prevent and minimize the risk of catastrophic impacts of overshoot, and to design the just and equitable path ahead.
The reports covered in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment reflect an undeniable scientific consensus about the urgency of the climate crisis, its primary causes, and the irreversible harm that will occur if warming surpasses 1.5°C, even temporarily. AR6 makes clear: A rapid fossil fuel phaseout and rollout of renewable energies alongside energy efficiency and demand-side measures remain the clearest and most certain path to avoid overshoot. The IPCC also reaffirms the dangers of governments and industries relying on the future availability of problematic technologies that are not proven at scale (like carbon capture and storage (CCS), technological carbon dioxide removal (CDR), and other geoengineering approaches) while taking grossly insufficient action now to immediately, urgently, and drastically reduce emissions.
Lost in Translation: Lessons from the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment on the Urgent Transition from Fossil Fuels and the Risks of Misplaced Reliance on False Solutions draws on two previous analyses by CIEL and the Heinrich Böll Foundation on the IPCC’s Working Group II (WGII) and Working Group III (WGIII) reports, other reports of the AR6 cycle, and additional relevant academic literature to inform interpretations of the AR6 Synthesis Report.
Read the brief.
Published on March 6th, 2023