Climate change has become one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. The effects of the climate crisis are felt in every corner of the planet. The melting of the polar ice caps, extreme heat, droughts or floods threaten not only biodiversity and ecosystems, but also significantly impacts society and our current way of life.
Rising global temperatures are causing drastic changes in agriculture and the availability of essential natural resources such as water and food. Taking into account this devastating context for the planet and in order to share and evaluate all scientific knowledge regarding climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was born. But what exactly is the IPCC?
The IPCC is “the main international body in charge of evaluating knowledge about climate change” stated by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO). In other words, it is a scientific organization that was born in the 1980s as an initiative of both the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The objective of the IPCC is to evaluate in an objective, transparent and rigorous manner the relevant and current scientific information on climate change in order to evaluate its effects and thus adapt to them.
In other words, the IPCC does not conduct research but relies on information from thousands of scientists around the world. IPCC assessments “provide a scientific basis for governments to formulate climate-related policies and inform the negotiations of the United Nations Climate Conference and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). )” details from the organization itself. Thus, the IPCC is made up of thousands of scientists around the world specialized in disciplines as diverse as meteorology, oceanography, biology or sociology. In this way, a comprehensive understanding of climate change is obtained, from its causes and future projections to its impacts on society and the environment.
Currently the IPCC is an Intergovernmental Group open to all members that make up both the United Nations and the WMO.
